EN Issue 40

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WELCOME TO THE CENTER OF THE
universe
Science zeros in on the
cosmic significance
of consciousness
Chopra Unplugged
Off the record with a mythic spiritual icon
Atheists with Attitude

A field guide to the new enemies of God
Issue 40 May-July 2008
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published by
ES¸`SAOdW\U What Is Enlightenment? is dedicated to a revolution in consciousness and culture.
Guided by the evolving vision of founder Andrew Cohen, we are in search of
a radical new moral and philosophical architecture for twenty-first-century
society. We believe that finding this framework for transformation—rooted
in the timeless revelation of enlightenment, reaching toward a truly coherent
ethics for the postmodern world—is imperative, not only for the evolution
of our species, but for our very survival. By asking the hard questions of the
new science and the ancient traditions, of art and culture, of business and
politics, What Is Enlightenment? seeks to create a dynamic context for conscious
engagement with the greatest challenges of our times, a groundwork for the
ongoing liberation of human potential.
Editor in Chief Contributing Editors Proofreaders

Andrew Cohen Peter Ragnar Dana Pasila
Gary Lachman Jeff Bellsey
404 Executive Editor
Carter Phipps Copy Editors Fact Checker
Ellen Daly David Marshall
trees Cynthia Sampson
Publisher Marketing
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Will Rogers Communications
Managing Editor
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Senior Editor
188,584 Elizabeth Debold Administrative and
Production Manager
Circulation Manager
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gallons of Senior Associate Customer Service
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A SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD OF ENLIGHTENNEXT, PUBLISHER
Part 1
The Universe Needs

A Call to Action
from Andrew Cohen, founder & editor in chief of What Is Enlightenment?
Dear friends, readers, and supporters of What Is Enlightenment?,

I want to tell you about a thrilling new the Universe Project, I’d like to tell systems have been superseded by that my own inquiry was occur-
initiative that we at EnlightenNext you a little about my background an emphasis on the rights of the ring within the larger context of a
are embarking on. It’s called the and how I came to understand that individual above all else. developmental process that began
Universe Project. It’s an exciting, the evolution of our individual con- If we are going to awaken with the big bang fourteen billion
perpetually developmental, inte- sciousness is directly related to the spiritually, outside of the interpre- long years ago. I began to see that
gral forum and collective process evolution of our collective culture tive structures of traditional belief the universe has an interior and
in which as many people as are and to the world that we create and systems, then we need to come an exterior and that the exterior
interested can actually participate share together. up with appropriate new ways to is matter and the interior is con-
in the most important cause there I became a spiritual teacher translate what the infinite nature sciousness. I came to recognize
is—the evolution of consciousness in 1986, when I was thirty years of consciousness actually has that my capacity for awareness
and culture. old, after having been a dedicated to do with the reality of our life was itself the product of time and
As readers of What Is seeker for eight years. In those conditions at the beginning of the that everything that we are, have
Enlightenment?, you’ve been days, I didn’t really know much twenty-first century. It was my been, and can be is all part and
tracking this important and vast about the complexity of the evo- attempt to find the answer to this parcel of a process that is, even
subject in the pages of the maga- lutionary process, but I did know important question that led me at this moment, awakening to it-
zine, and I would like to take this what consciousness was because to start What Is Enlightenment? self through our very own hearts
opportunity to warmly invite you when my seeking came to an end, magazine more than seventeen and minds.
to participate in a broader cycle of IT entered my being so deeply that years ago. I came to appreciate more
transformative events and forums I was no longer the same person. The exciting inquiry that this than ever how the spiritual experi-
that my students and colleagues What I soon began to discover, magazine is dedicated to has ence is the most important and
at EnlightenNext are creating. I however, was that awakening to gradually changed in its emphasis powerful vehicle through which
firmly believe that if we want the consciousness doesn’t necessar- as I’ve developed in my own under- human beings connect most inti-
world to change in a significant ily, in and of itself, clarify for us standing as a spiritual teacher. mately with the process that has
way, and if we’re serious about how we are supposed to deal with While initially I was concerned given them life. And it became
creating a better future for us the ever-increasing complexity of principally with the experience of more and more apparent that the
all, then it’s up to those of us at human life. I found that awaken- enlightenment and what its signifi- way we interpret those experiences
the leading edge—which means ing to higher states frees us from cance was in our post-traditional is principally informed by our cultural
people like you and me who have the world but doesn’t automati- context, as time passed, my own beliefs and shared values. It became
been blessed with education and cally tell us how to live in it. This perspective on what I was trying to impossible to avoid the direct
free time—to make sure it hap- is especially true for those of us do deepened. Slowly but surely, I relationship between the values
pens. We have to be the ones to who live in the current postmodern awakened to the evolutionary per- and beliefs we share and cherish
create the future. cultural context where, for many at spective. I discovered the obvious and the ways in which we con-
Before I tell you more about the leading edge, traditional belief and awareness-expanding truth sciously and not so consciously
01_TOC_i40_new.indd 4 3/29/08 8:55:20 PM

OF WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT? MAGAZINE
You!
interpret every dimension of our for as many people as possible,

experience—from the gross to a direct awakening to higher and
the subtle, from the mundane to deeper dimensions of conscious-
➜ The Universe Project

the profound—in every moment. ness beyond ego and the con-
What makes this even more com- scious evolution of our individual
needs Evolutionaries
plex is that many of these values and collective value spheres. It’s
are culturally conditioned and our bold endeavor to put all the
therefore are not necessarily very pieces together. We want to help
apparent to us. As all this became to define—in partnership with We at EnlightenNext call our latest
clear to me, it also became obvi- many friends, co-evolutionaries,
ous that unless we make a con- and fellow seekers of truth and initiative the Universe Project
certed effort to evolve our shared meaning—what the next steps for because we are endeavoring,
values at the very same time as we all of us actually are. through all our programs and events,
cultivate our capacity to awaken In order to facilitate this
to deeper states of consciousness, exciting project, we are going to to provide individuals with ways to
it will be impossible to individually initiate an annual series of activi- directly participate in the biggest
and collectively evolve in a compre- ties centered around two yearly project there is. It’s not “our”
hensive and truly integral manner. events that present opportuni-
All of our work at ties for the deepest growth and project. It actually is the project
EnlightenNext, including collective development. One of our expanding universe.
what we are doing at What Is will be a month-long spiritual
Enlightenment? magazine, is retreat dedicated to the mystical
dedicated to bringing the light of awakening of consciousness at Help create the future . . .
awareness to this delicate and
all-important multidimensional
both the individual and collective
levels. The other will be an annual
Become an Evolutionary
process. We are also deeply com- international conference, dedi-
mitted to facilitating the actual cated to being a forum that brings Sign up for free at:
evolutionary transformation that together leading-edge thinkers,
I am speaking about. Indeed, philosophers, and visionar- www.enlightennext.org
our work is driven by a passion ies from every possible field of
to push this process forward, at endeavor who are committed to
its leading edge. The Universe the transformation of our world
Project is our attempt to facilitate, in the context of conscious evolu-
May–July 2008 5
01_TOC_i40_new.indd 5 3/29/08 8:55:34 PM

A SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD OF ENLIGHTENNEXT continued
EnlightenNext is embarking on a yearly cycle of spiritual

practice, dialogue, and engagement that will make it possible
for individuals to participate in and directly experience
the dynamic evolutionary relationship between
the inner and the outer, between conscious-
ness and culture, between the
developing human being and
the evolving universe.
6CCJ6A
DC:"BDCI=
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8DC;:G:C8:
consciousness culture
tion. Throughout the year, we will most important themes that are process of individual, collective, I warmly invite you to participate
also be hosting a variety of pro- brought to light in the conference and intersubjective conscious evo- in some of the events, programs,
grams on culture and conscious- will be carried into the spiritual lution and engaged inquiry. This and forums we are already holding
ness—online, in print, at all of our retreat as questions for deeper trajectory, from inner to outer, around the world today and be
eleven centers, and in major cities contemplation and inquiry by the back to inner and back to outer part of this exciting new initiative
around the world. collective, as participants experi- again, will recur in twelve-month that we will be launching in the
What is unique about this ence higher and deeper states of cycles—always within an ongo- coming months. By signing up as
idea is that both of these major consciousness. ingly developmental context. an “Evolutionary,” you can stay
events will be directly and The theme of the Universe What will make this initiative connected to the ever-evolving
integrally connected with one Project—the evolution of con- truly significant is the strength edge of this growing movement of
another. We are going to track sciousness and culture—will of our collective intention to passionate, like-minded spiritual
the actual connection between always remain the same, but our endeavor with all our hearts, activists who feel responsible for
individual and collective inner understanding of what that actu- minds, and souls to create a bet- creating our future. I hope you will
development and the evolution ally means will perpetually develop. ter world for us all. So once again, join us today!
of our shared values—and how And that’s the whole idea! The
that affects the new world we are developmental relationship
trying to create together. All of between the retreat and the con-
the revelation that is experienced ference consciously and directly
and shared at the spiritual retreat engages with the actual connec-
will provide the ground of awak- tion between the inner and outer
ened consciousness upon which dimensions of life. This will be a ➜ Sign up to become an Evolutionary at:
the conference will be built. The real-time, public, and transparent www.enlightennext.org
01_TOC_i40_new.indd 6 3/29/08 8:55:45 PM

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contents
A View from the

Center of the Universe
An interview with Joel R. Primack
and Nancy Ellen Abrams
Ever since Copernicus proved that the universe
doesn’t revolve around Earth, humanity’s place in
the cosmos has steadily continued to shrink. But
according to physicist Joel Primack and cultural phi-
losopher Nancy Abrams, we may be far more central
to the universe than we think. WIE speaks with this
dynamic husband-and-wife duo about the fascinating
ways in which science is coming to understand our
true cosmic significance, revealing a surprising new
context in which to answer the perennial spiritual
questions: Who are we? and Why are we here?
by Elizabeth Debold 62
Living in the Dark

Featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson • Paul Davies • Janna Levin
Deno Kazanis • Bernard Haisch
Cosmologists say that ninety-six percent of the universe’s mass is
actually invisible, consisting of enigmatic entities called “dark matter”
and “dark energy.” The question is, what is this stuff? And why are
some physicists invoking Eastern philosophy to explain it?
by Tom Huston 80
The Mythic Life and

Times of Deepak Chopra
He is the most famous face in the world of East-meets-
West spirituality. But what’s the real story behind
Deepak Chopra’s success? In this candid interview
with spiritual teacher and WIE founder Andrew Cohen,
Chopra offers a never-before-seen look at his remark-
able life, proceeding from his formative years in India
to his rise in the ranks of the Transcendental Meditation
movement to the dramatic separation from his guru
that set him on the path to spiritual stardom.
by Andrew Cohen 86
May–July 2008 11
01_TOC_i40_new.indd 11 3/29/08 12:39:51 PM

FEATURES
continued
THE GURU AND THE PANDIT

Atheists with Attitude A Kosmic Roller-Coaster Ride
God has some new enemies. Led by Richard Dawkins and What is the purpose of the universe? Is the evolutionary
other outspoken voices, the “New Atheists” are on a mission process God’s merry-go-round, repeating in infinite cycles,
to debunk religious faith once and for all. In an entertaining or is it a deadly serious endeavor charting ever-new ground?
field guide, WIE surveys the personalities and tactics being Metaphysical sparks fly between the Guru and the Pandit as
employed in this latest iteration of an age-old culture war. they tackle some of the biggest questions that philosophers
by Carter Phipps and Joel Pitney 38 have wrestled with for millennia.
Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber 50
DEPARTMENTS
14 L E T T E R S 34 V O I C E S F R O M T H E E D G E
16 E D I T O R I A L 34 Mrs. Satan
by Gary Lachman
18 P U L S E
NEWS FROM AN EMERGING CULTURE 36 What Have You Changed
Eckhart Tolle and Oprah enlighten millions Your Mind About?
online; the Lake Wobegon Effect; Amit Featuring Stewart Brand and Rupert Sheldrake
Goswami’s quantum crusade; Shawn Phillips’s
Strength for Life; news on WIE’s next issue; 108 N A T U R A L S E L E C T I O N
and the hottest diet question of the last two REVIEWS OF BOOKS, FILM, AND OTHER MEDIA
thousand years: Was Jesus a juicer?
122 H E A L T H with Peter Ragnar
30 S K Y T O S T R E E T The Exercise Elixir
Let’s Cradle
The Dutch are embracing the revolutionary 128 E N L I G H T E N M E N T F O R
green design philosophy known as Cradle to THE 21ST CENTURY
Cradle in ways never seen before. But will the Raising the Bar
rest of the world follow their lead? by Andrew Cohen
by Carol Ann Raphael
01_TOC_i40_new.indd 12 3/19/08 3:35:20 PM

Letters
each dream had a telos, a way masters of spirituality, psy- Images”). Thank you, Mr.
forward out of the repetitive chology, and science. Focus Cohen and friends, for fea-
madness of one’s psychologi- less on what was or will be, turing this mysterious spiri-
cal patterns. As we spin in because insight comes again tual master’s exquisite art.
the amazement of a new sym- and always from the present Even to merely contemplate
bol given to us in our dreams, potential. the beautiful photos of his
this symbol points to our evo- David Hauenstein images in your magazine, I
lutionary futures. It is then via email feel I am being shifted out of
that we begin to participate “point of view,” beyond my
with psyche in “Eureka-like THE NEED TO BE #1 ego perception. What a relief!
Issue 39 events,” launching into a new I must admit to being some- Adi Da’s art is clearly an
February–April 2008 worldview, a new context. what taken aback and a little incredible gift to the world.
Dr. Bren perplexed by Andrew Cohen’s Robert H.
JUNG’S IDEA OF EVOLUTION via email interview with Frank Zane. Seattle, WA
I just finished reading Carter On the one hand I take my hat
Phipps’s article and am JUNG’S POWER OF NOW off to anyone who achieves BEYOND FEMINISM
delighted to see Carl Jung In his feature article, “The such exceptional feats of Thank you for keeping the
take such a prominent posi- Cosmos, the Psyche, and personal accomplishment as dialogue on the feminine gen-
tion in this magazine, both You,” Carter Phipps contrasts to be crowned Mr. Olympia, der rolling and stimulating
in this article and Elizabeth Jung’s archetypal perspec- no less than three times! debate. To a certain point it is
Debold’s article, “The tive with the new evolutionary Mr. Zane, it seems, is also a useful to review how women
Divine Feminine, Unveiled.” worldview. He writes, “After pretty evolved individual on got to be “what” we are now.
However, his work is misrep- all, the root of archetype is several other scales of spiri- However, I feel it is now time
resented per usual. arche, which literally means tual awareness. However, has to acknowledge the Divine
While I agree wholeheart- ‘first principle.’” He then he not also been driven most Spirit that all genders share,
edly with Debold casting quotes Dennis Ford, who of his life by an extraordinary and look towards the work we
Jung’s cultural context as says, “Archetypes deempha- ego need to be #1? could all do together. I agree
horridly Victorian, I disagree size the emergence of the A few years ago I remem- with Elizabeth Debold (“The
with Phipps’s interpreta- genuinely new.” ber having the pleasure of Divine Feminine, Unveiled”)
tion of Jung’s archetypes as We could think of the meeting Jack LaLanne at a that women now need to
being fixed as first principles archetypal “first principle” social gathering in LA and perform this “heroic act” of
and “not toward the new, the not as past but as now and marveling at his great shape freeing our souls from what
novel, or the unknown.” This always. Jung discovered the and vigor for a man of his age, we have been embedded in
very point is the reason Jung principle in the moment, in yet also thinking to myself through the ages. It’s time to
left Freud. Freud buried the his now, just as you and I are that without the ego’s help he drop our attention from any
instincts in the mechanical doing now and will continue would almost certainly not thoughts of victimization,
body, and Jung rescued them to do through unending have been able to achieve his underdogs, glass ceilings,
by connecting them to the moments. As for the “genu- many extraordinary physi- and so on, and to value our-
archetypes. Jung never pos- inely new,” think of “new” as cal feats. Is there not a great selves as the Divine Spirit,
ited the archetypes as fixed. what we keep rediscovering paradox here for all of us over and above any ego per-
He spoke of the archetypes and improving our under- interested in the mysteries sonas. We more than likely
as directing the flow, the standing of as we develop underlying human motivation chose to be here as men in
force of evolution, within each gradually. and our quest for fame? other lifetimes too, and one
individual’s life. Phipps writes, “Is there a John H. Boyd could say men also face chal-
Jung’s idea of evolution way of integrating the essen- Toronto, ON lenges of gender culture. We
is best reflected in his partial insights of both Jung and all have our altered egos to
ticular method of dream Teilhard de Chardin, without A GIFT TO THE WORLD deal with.
interpretation. Where Freud compromising the funda- Fantastique! I loved Ms. When we enter this “new
was apt to find the meaning of mental truths of either?” He Raphael’s article about the way of being,” clear of many
dreams in frustrated sexual answers yes, and I agree. art of Adi Da Samraj (“The of our gender issues, then we
instincts, Jung found that Look up to, not back at, the Heart Was Released from will be free to fully engage in
letters continued on page 121
!"#$%&#'(!#)*+,')--..."( /0"10!2..."3//345.67
A few years ago, we set out to start a dialogue, a worldwide conversation. We invited people
everywhere to join us online to create global community and exchange ideas for a better future. Our efforts have
proved fruitful. Concerned citizens from over 100 countries have been connecting at our site. And now we' ve added a host
of new capabilities. As our community continues to expand, so too do the opportunities to address global issues.
Come get a taste of how we' re making positive change, and grow with us.
www. g lo b a l≠ min d s h if t . o rg
May–July 2008 15
2008 Global MindShift
!"#$%&#'(!#)*+,')--..."/ 01"21!3..."40(4!!.56
editorial
THE JOURNEY THROUGH THIS ISSUE of WIE, as the title of the nineteenth Guru and
Pandit dialogue states, is truly a Kosmic roller-coaster ride! Elizabeth Debold’s in-
depth interview with astrophysicist Joel Primack and his wife, lawyer and historian
of science Nancy Abrams, is literally a voyage to the center of our universe, a mind-
expanding and perspective-altering experience to read. These two pioneers are
exemplars of a significant new phenomenon. They are both committed materialists
who have devoted their lives to birthing a new creation story intended to inspire a
sense of awe and wonder on par with spiritual enlightenment, a creation story that
is not based upon mystical revelation but is founded on the most up-to-date research
in cosmology, astrophysics, and biology. They aspire to bridge the chasm between
science and spirituality, and even more boldly, they are trying to lay the foundation
for a new, truly cosmos-centered spirituality that places human beings—and the
choices they are making right now—at the very leading edge of the entire process.
My dialogue with integral giant Ken Wilber for this issue turned out to be a perfect
complement to the scientists’ quest for cosmic purpose, because Ken and I are com-
mitted champions of Spirit and consciousness first and foremost. I hope you’ll
enjoy (as much as we did) our impassioned philosophical exchange about whether
God’s grand project of creating our universe is a cosmic game or the most serious
endeavor that could ever be.
For quite some time now, I have wanted to do a different kind of interview with
the larger-than-life explosion-in-motion called Deepak Chopra. I’ve been curious
about his inner experience and what the source of his phenomenal energy is. Over
the past two years, we’ve become friends, and so the opportunity finally presented
itself. I’m sure the result will not disappoint.
Finally, executive editor Carter Phipps and our new associate editor (and fi ne
young man) Joel Pitney have put together an entertaining and illuminating piece
about the history and evolution of the concept of atheism. I’m sure you’re going
to have more than one dimension of your own inner cosmos and personal psyche
touched by reading this issue of What Is Enlightenment?—as we all did while creat-
ing it. . . . Have fun!
Andrew Cohen
Founder and Editor in Chief
01_TOC_i40_new.indd 16 3/19/08 3:34:59 PM

pulse NEWS FROM AN EMERGING CULTURE
ZEITGEIST NUMBERS
The “O” Factor Do you believe in miracles?
With 1999’s The Power of Now, which sold over two million Miracle Man, a new television drama being developed at ABC, is
copies, German-born mystic Eckhart Tolle was catapulted about a disgraced televangelist who becomes an atheist after
to the heights of spiritual acclaim. In 2005, he wrote A New being exposed as a fraud, only to later discover that God is now
Earth, a sequel with which he hoped to share his message using him to perform real miracles. And if recent polls are right,
“less forcefully, somewhat more gently.” It sold well in its the story is likely to resonate with most Americans. Four out of
first few months but eventually found its way to the Barnes fi ve believe miracles are real, and nearly two-thirds personally
& Noble bargain bin. know someone who has experienced one.
Then Oprah spaketh, and the people did listen.
“When I read this book for the first time,” she said Adult Americans
in early February of this year, not long after endorsing who believe in… % Change from 2005
presidential candidate Barack Obama, “I knew I just had to
God 82 —
share it with the whole world. So I chose it as a book club
selection. . . . I believe it is the future.” Within days, A New Heaven 75 +5%
Earth—a.k.a. Oprah’s Book Club Selection 61—skyrocketed Angels 74 +6%
to the top of all major bestseller lists in the U.S., and its
publisher ordered an additional three million copies to meet Survival of the soul after death 69 –1%
the sudden global demand. But things were just warming up. Hell 62 +3%
Oprah next announced that she and Tolle would be teaching The Devil 62 +1%
an online video “webinar” together—a free, interactive, ten-
Ghosts 41 +1%
week course dedicated to exploring each chapter of A New
Earth. Within the first few weeks of enrollment, over 500,000 UFOs 35 +1%
people, representing 139 countries, had signed up for “the Witches 31 +3%
biggest classroom in the world.” And as this issue goes Astrology 29 +4%
to press, the virtual classes are under way, popularizing
authentic teachings of spiritual enlightenment on an appar- Reincarnation 21 —
ently unprecedented scale. [Harris Poll 11.29.07]
Hey, has anyone given Oprah a copy of WIE lately?
02_S2S_i40.indd 18 3/28/08 1:33:14 PM

pulse
IN PRINT WILBER WATCH
Integral Ecology
As the magnitude and complexity of our
environmental problems increase, it’s
becoming clear that we need a higher,
more integrated perspective from which to
approach them. With their upcoming book
Integral Ecology (November 2008), the
Integral Institute’s Michael Zimmerman
and Sean Esbjörn-Hargens may be offer-
ing the largest step in that direction yet.
Drawing on the work of Ken Wilber and Integral On-the-Go
other integral pioneers, the book will explore how our ideas about While the world’s most prolific integral author continues his courageous task
nature—and humanity’s place in it—have developed over time. of writing no less than six books at once—including Kosmic Karma, the massive
Ultimately, the authors hope to provide a broad framework in which sequel to his 1995 magnum opus, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality—his personal assis-
to navigate the landscape of conflicting perspectives involved in tant, Colin Bigelow, has decided to appease the public’s rabid appetite for new
any environmental issue, and we’re sure we’re not alone in eagerly Wilber works by feeding them a bite-sized snack. The Pocket Ken Wilber, edited
awaiting what they have to say. by Bigelow and due out from Shambhala’s popular Pocket Classics imprint
this fall, is literally a pocket-sized, 3-by-4½-inch, collection of some of Wilber’s
most pithy and profound expositions on the nature of spiritual consciousness,
God Is Not Dead transformation, and enlightenment. Has Thomas Cleary’s Pocket I Ching finally
& Creative Evolution met its match?
As the New Atheists proudly carry the
fl ag of scientific materialism into the CONFERENCES
twenty-first century (see p. 38), they
must be prepared to do battle with
those who don’t believe that science and AUG Integral Theory in Action
materialism go hand in hand. Enter Amit 7-10 S A N FR A NCISCO, AUGUS T 7-10, 2 0 0 8
Goswami, quantum physicist. For years, 2008 www.integraltheoryconference.org
Goswami has insisted that consciousness,
not matter, is the primary substance of Billed as the first major academic conference devoted to the burgeon-
reality. And in God Is Not Dead (June 2008), he aims to promote ing field of integral theory and practice, and being jointly sponsored
a new spirituality—called, intriguingly, “quantum activism”—in by Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute and John F. Kennedy University, this
order to help us break through our materialistic conditioning landmark occasion for integral scholarship and networking will explore
once and for all. But that’s just the beginning of his quantum topics spanning art to politics to global warming (and pretty much
crusade. In a second book, Creative Evolution (October 2008), everything else).
Goswami will propose nothing less than a quantum “resolution
between Darwinism and Intelligent Design.” We can see school-
teachers in Kansas scratching their heads even now. OCT Integral Leadership in Action
9-12 BOUL DER, OCTOBER 9-12, 2 0 0 8
2008 www.integralinaction.com
Strength for Life
Bill Phillips achieved fame in the fitness In partnership with Boulder, Colorado’s Center for Integral Living, the
world with his bodybuilding bible Body 3rd Integral Leadership in Action (ILiA) Collaborative will be a week-
for Life. Now his brother, Shawn Phillips, end devoted to strengthening the growing integral community, with
is poised on the brink of similar stardom speakers including WIE editors Carter Phipps and Elizabeth Debold,
with a book that carries the Body for Life EnlightenNext’s Jeff Carreira, philosopher Steve McIntosh, and Zen
approach forward—and upward—into teacher Diane Hamilton.
the realm of mental and spiritual as well
as physical vitality. Strength for Life,
due out on April 29, features Phillips’s
DEC Parliament of the World’s Religions
fullest presentation to date of what he calls “Focused Intensity
3 - 9 MEL BOURNE, DECEMBER 3 –9, 2 0 0 9
Training,” his system of mind-body strength training that incor-
2009 www.parliamentofreligions2009.org
porates insights from Eastern disciplines like yoga, meditation, Book your tickets early—Melbourne, Australia, has been awarded the bid
and the martial arts. With detailed plans for transformation to host the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions. First initiated in 1893,
alongside simple, accessible chapters on how to eat, think, and the Parliament has reconvened every five years since its 1993 reinstate-
orient yourself to “life at full strength,” Phillips brings over ment to promote goodwill between the world’s religious traditions. WIE
covered the 2004 Parliament in Barcelona (see Issue 27), and we’ll be back
twenty years’ experience to a manuscript we can’t wait to sink
in 2009 to help push the edge of interfaith—and intrafaith—evolution.
our teeth—and biceps—into.
02_S2S_i40.indd 20 3/29/08 1:01:21 PM

pulse
KUDOS SITES & BLOGS
www.BigThink.com
Big Think is an interactive video forum deploying
a full arsenal of Web 2.0 technology. Browse, rate,
and respond to the opinions of celebrity experts,
or present your own creative ideas, in this attempt
to create a global conversation about the myriad
spiritual and social issues of our time.
www.192021.org
How will the emergence of “supercities” change
the way we live? In a world where 19 cities will
reach a population of at least 20 million in the 21st
century, 192021 uses compelling animated maps
Kudos to TOM CALLOS, innovative martial arts educator and and data to bring that question to the forefront of
our collective awareness.
founder of the Ultimate Black Belt Test (see WIE Issue 31), for a
new national initiative offering free unlimited martial arts train-
ing to all veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq, for all of 2008, with www.GlobalOnenessProject.org
Featuring an impressive array of captivating, high-
no strings attached. “It occurred to me that we could do some- quality videos, this site is documenting inspirational
thing powerful, useful, relevant, and therapeutic,” he wrote to stories and insights from people around the
his sizable network of dojos and teachers across the country. world who are striving to apply the perspective of
oneness—in all its many definitions—to their lives,
“We could give soldiers a place to vent physical stress, to center work, and consciousness.
themselves, to blend back into civilian life with the aid of our
physical, mental, and emotional training. . . . Will you join me?” www.SpaceCollective.org
So far, the response has been enthusiastic, and here’s hoping it This fascinating “creation exchange platform”—
really catches fire this spring. or online think tank—brings together college
students, futurists, artists, and assorted
transhumanists to work on collaborative design
and multimedia projects as part of an ambitious
quest to envision the “Future of Everything.”
ON OUR BOOKSHELF
Kudos to RICHARD DAWKINS for standing up and crying foul

last September when the makers of Expelled, a new film about The Inconscient
Intelligent Design starring Ben Stein, apparently interviewed
him under false pretenses in order to fool him into appearing in Out of a seeming void and dark-winged sleep
the movie. “At no time was I given the slightest clue that these Of dim inconscient infinity
people were a creationist front,” Dawkins said. Perhaps the A Power arose from the insentient deep,
filmmakers felt they’d never get an outspoken neo-Darwinist A flame-whirl of magician Energy.
like Dawkins to willingly lend his voice to their anti-evolution
propaganda piece. But we’d like to point out that Dawkins Some huge somnambulist Intelligence
should be able to sympathize with their tactics. Which is why . . . Devising without thought process and plan
ahem . . . we also offer our kudos to RUPERT SHELDRAKE Arrayed the burning stars’ magnificence,
for standing up and crying foul in January when Dawkins did the The living bodies of beasts and the brain of man.
exact same thing to him in order to get Sheldrake to appear in
Enemies of Reason, a recent program about alternative health and What stark Necessity or ordered Chance
spirituality that Dawkins put together for the UK’s Channel 4. Became alive to know the cosmic whole?
“I had been led to believe,” Sheldrake writes, “that this was What magic of numbers, what mechanic dance
to be a balanced scientific discussion about the evidence [for Developed consciousness, assumed a soul?
unexplained psychic phenomena],” but it seems as if Dawkins
was only interested in using Sheldrake as a foil for another one The darkness was the Omnipotent’s abode,
of his antireligious diatribes. Instant karma, anyone? Hood of omniscience, a blind mask of God.
—Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems
!"#$"$#%&!'%())***"" +,-.,!/***-0&!0+1*23
THE WORLD OF WIE
Speaking of contentious through a spiritual lens and then

issues, senior editor Elizabeth to bring the insights gleaned from
Debold has continued shaking their inquiry to the powerful lead-
things up in a number of North American ers in Davos next door. Finally, you
cities, bringing the urgent need for a new don’t have to leave the comfort of
women’s liberation movement to the your home to remain up to speed
forefront of women’s consciousness. Her with the creators of WIE: You can
recent talks included a weekend inten- check out our latest interviews at
sive in Victoria, BC, where she and Spiral WIE Unbound (wieunbound.org); stay
Dynamics wizard Marilyn Hamilton took tuned to WIE.org for information on
F
attendees on a multimedia tour of the his- upcoming teleconferences;
ollowing last summer’s provoca-
tory and evolution of the female psyche. visit editor Tom Huston’s
tive issue on women, we’ve decided
To see Debold’s schedule for 2008, blog at kosmictom.com to
to risk life and limb to explore the
including her upcoming trip to Europe, catch sneak previews of upcoming
topic of gender and sexuality once again.
visit wie.org/debold. Also in Europe, the articles; and visit editor in chief
The men of WIE have been cooking up our
editor of WIE’s German edition, Andrew Cohen’s blog
forthcoming Men’s Issue in regular ses-
Tom Steininger, helped lead (andrewcohen.org/blog)
sions in our on-site sauna, sweating over
the fifth annual World Spirit to dive into the heart of
our research into the wide-open question
Forum, which convened in the Swiss his own spiritual inquiry, which has
of what it means to be a twenty-first-
Alps, one mountain away from the World been the force fueling WIE from
century man in a world where traditional
Economic Forum in Davos. The goal of the start.
roles and role models have been left
the WSF was to examine the increas- For more about the activities of
behind. We have no doubt it’s going to be
ing challenges of our globalizing world EnlightenNext and WIE, see page 4.
a compelling—and contentious—issue.
NUTRITION CORNER
Jesus Was a Juicer
There’s a new diet in town that even your Sunday school teacher will love. The
Hallelujah Diet consists of vegan and mostly raw foods and is based on twenty-
fi ve years of nutritional research by its founder, the Reverend George Malkmus.
But it has something else going for it that other raw food diets don’t—it was
inspired by the original human diet created by God in the Garden of Eden.
According to Malkmus, “God originally created man to live forever, and on
this raw vegetarian diet, man lived an average of 912 years, prior to the fl ood,
without a single recorded instance of sickness.” But just like we fell from grace
after Adam and Eve took a bite of that forbidden (organic) fruit, Malkmus says,
our diet has also fallen from its pure original form. In fact, he thinks the reason
that God gave man permission to eat meat after the great fl ood (Genesis 9:2-3)
was to shorten his life span as punishment for his sins.
If the wrath of God isn’t enough to compel you to change your eating habits,
Malkmus’s impressive history of results might be. The Hallelujah Diet has
helped thousands of Christians to overcome everything from obesity to osteopo-
rosis, including Malkmus himself, who used the diet to cure his colon cancer.
02_S2S_i40.indd 24 3/28/08 9:31:51 PM

pulse
NUMBERS
The Lake Wobegon Effect 94%

of university professors believe that
“Welcome to Lake Wobegon, they are better at their jobs than their
colleagues.
where all the women are
strong, all the men are good-
looking, and all the children 1%
of online daters, in a recent survey,
are above average.” admitted to having “less than
Garrison Keillor average” looks.
Whether you know it or not, you may suffer from the Lake
A poll taken from Facebook
Wobegon effect—a term referring to the common human
(August 2007)
tendency to overestimate one’s achievements and capabili-
ties in relation to others. The expression was coined in 1987 “Do you have good taste in music?”
by John J. Cannell, a West Virginia physician who discovered
that every state in the country had reported standardized
test scores above the national average—a statistical impos-
74%
sibility. As a magazine with a long tradition of doing battle
against narcissism and self-importance wherever we find it,
we decided to look for other examples of the Lake Wobegon
effect to share with our readers.
21%
5%
Better than About Worse than
average average average
740 people 206 people 54 people
!"#$"$#%&!'%())***"+ ,-./-!0***.1&!1&,*23
Evolution is something you do.
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impulse behind the whole evolving But most of us don’t see this,
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02_S2S_i40.indd 27 3/28/08 1:21:52 PM

pulse
SOULS IN TRANSITION
MAHARISHI MEDITATING AT HIS 85 TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION, JANUARY 12, 2002
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

January 12, 1917 – February 5, 2008
“Invincibility is irreversibly established in the world.

My work is done. My designated duty to Guru Dev is fulfilled.”
The Maharishi, upon retiring from teaching in January 2008
!"#$"$#%&!'%())***"+ ,-./-!+***.0&!01.*23
skytostreet
!"#$"$#%&!'%())***+! +,-.,!/***-0&!011*23
Let’s Cradle
The Dutch are Revving up their Economy
and Shifing into Eco High-Gear
by Carol Ann Raphael
O
ne could say that the process and provide the resources for of its international successes, none
Dutch have always been future generations of goods and living of them Dutch but all of them impres-
environmentally sober. No systems. Their “cradle to cradle” think- sive. It struck a chord with many of the
romantic ideal of nature ing, as opposed to our current “cradle nation’s sixteen million residents.
for them. With much of their landmass to grave” way of making things, places Within months of the film’s air-
reclaimed from the sea and subject to as much value on sustainability, safety, ing, a number of initiatives had been
periodic, unpredictable flooding, they’ve and economics as it does on function. launched. Roger Cox, a lawyer and a
known for centuries the vigilance it If we design intelligently, they contend, father of two young children from the
takes to protect themselves from natu- both the economy and the ecology will city of Maastricht, was responsible for
ral disaster. In recent times, they have flourish—which perhaps contributes to one of the first and for stimulating a
been at the vanguard of environmen- C2C’s appeal for the enterprising Dutch. wider conversation among the Dutch
tal planning and boast one of today’s C2C design principles have been about the world’s ecological crisis.
smallest ecological footprints of the applied to projects small and large Cox hadn’t been “in the sustainability
Western European nations. Their habit- around the world, from a baby diaper business,” he says. “At least, I wasn’t
ual attentiveness to the natural world bag that decomposes when Junior until that point.” But the documentary
may explain why they have responded grows up to the rehabilitation of one of “moved me and I started to discuss it
so enthusiastically to one of the most the most toxic rivers in America and the with my law firm.” He asked, “What
promising developments in the envi- highly polluting Ford man-
ronmental movement today—the revo- ufacturing facility adjacent
lutionary ecological design philosophy to it. C2C has proven itself,
known as Cradle to Cradle. both environmentally Cradle to Cradle is based
Cradle to Cradle (C2C) is based on and financially. But what on a simple premise—
a simple premise—waste equals food. effect it can have on the
Which is to say, instead of producing scale of an entire country waste equals food.
waste that pollutes and chokes land- has only been conjecture
fills, our discards can be the source, or until now. If the interest in
food, for future generations of products, Cradle to Cradle continues to take hold can we, as a law firm, do to make a dif-
raw materials, and living organisms. It in the Netherlands at the pace that it ference in our own regional society?”
is an approach to design “with the life has in the past year and a half, then the The answer was to offer, for an entire
cycle in mind,” according to American world may soon find out how a national month, a free showing of Al Gore’s
architect William McDonough who, economy can thrive while maintaining a Academy Award–winning film about
in collaboration with German chem- sustainable relationship with nature. global warming, An Inconvenient Truth,
ist Michael Braungart, developed the Events began simply enough in this to the residents of their hometown.
Cradle to Cradle concept. Rather than small progressive country that once Soon the media were writing and talk-
make things that are “less bad” or ruled a vast colonial empire. On October ing about climate change. Cox figured,
revert to a lifestyle in which we con- 2, 2006, Dutch public television aired a “If it’s that easy to get people to talk
sume less, they advocate that we create documentary entitled Waste = Food. The about climate change, then why not
products, buildings, and even entire fifty-minute film introduces Cradle to start a foundation so we can do this in
cities that actively contribute to the life Cradle ideas and presents a number other cities?”
May–July 2008 31
!"#$"$#%&!'%())***+, +-,.-!/***,0&,0!!*12
skytostreet
These artist’s impressions

represent some of the
innovative C2C design
concepts that will be
unveiled at the next World
Horticulture Fair, Floriade
2012, to be held in the
Netherlands.
Cradle to Cradle design has been

applied to projects around the world,
but what effect could it have on an
entire country?
By January 2007, Cox had will build sixty thousand new C2C housing a leading country once again”
established the Planet Prosperity ing units; McDonough’s architectural come true sooner rather than later.
Foundation, whose first undertak- firm is creating a master plan for an He explains, “We are a small country,
ing was to make An Inconvenient Truth ambitious multi-use business com- densely populated, and with a good
available for free in twenty other Dutch plex known as Park 20/20; a group knowledge-based infrastructure.
towns. Even more media attention and of enterprising young art students People know each other here. It’s easy
discussion ensued. From then on things has produced a line of one hundred to get things done.” Clearly, he’s right
moved quickly—and the noun “cradle” percent biodegradable furniture; and to say that there is “something hap-
transformed into a verb. most significantly, a regionwide initia- pening in Holland right now that is not
“Let’s Cradle” is the name of a tive in the province of Limburg has happening anywhere else.” Though
series of conferences taking place brought together local, provincial, it’s easy to appreciate the urgency
across the Netherlands, the first and national interests to create part- that living for hundreds of years on
of which was held in Maastricht in nerships that will spearhead a “new land mostly under sea level creates,
November 2007. Jacqueline Cramer, industrial revolution” in the area. The the momentum sweeping through the
National Minister of Housing, Spatial goal is to showcase the results of the Netherlands for adopting the stringent
Planning, and the Environment, gave collaborative effort at the upcoming C2C strategies is nonetheless very
the keynote address to an audience of World Horticulture Fair, Floriade 2012, inspiring. It may be just the kind of
650 participants from business, gov- where thousands of international tour- sensible example that the world needs
ernment, and academia and announced ists will be able to see firsthand the to overcome resistance to tackling our
the Dutch government’s commitment fruits of Cradle to Cradle planning and massive environmental problems. Like
to implementing Cradle to Cradle prac- construction. a child’s finger in a dike, a small-yet-
tices throughout the country. Future “To transform a society to a sustain- determined effort by a few people can
conferences are in the works, with the able society will take decades,” says make a big difference.
next one geared primarily to students, Cox. But given the industriousness of
who have responded by the hundreds to the Dutch, their well-honed talent for
the promise of sustainability and posi- trade and commerce, and the swiftness
tive change that C2C offers. with which the C2C movement is
Listen to an interview about Cradle to
And there’s been more than just gathering support in the country, Cox Cradle design with Michael Braungart at
talk. Almere, a suburb of Amsterdam, may see his dream of Holland “becom- wie.org/braungart
02_S2S_i40.indd 32 3/28/08 9:41:08 PM

voices from the edge
Mrs. Satan
Hillary-bashing may seem harsh this campaign season, but America’s
first female candidate for President had it much worse.
By Gary Lachman
MOST POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS HAVE a fair amount of mudsling- her father put her to work in his traveling sideshow, where she
ing, but of recent years, the bid for the 2008 U.S. presidential appeared as a clairvoyant and fortune teller. She made success-
seat has seen some of the fiercest on record. Not surprisingly, ful predictions, could find missing objects, received messages
much of this has been aimed at Hillary Clinton. On the low from “beyond,” and possessed “magnetic” healing powers.
end, her opponents on the right have tagged her as ultra-liberal She also claimed that she was sometimes allowed to visit an
and ultra–left wing—a calculating and deceitful politician who idyllic spiritual world, a kind of celestial utopia reminiscent of
knows what the voting public wants to hear and also exactly how Emanuel Swedenborg’s accounts of heaven, which must have
to say it. Mid-range we find Robert Novak of CNN’s Crossfire contrasted sharply with her earthly lot. Her “spirit guides” also
likening Hillary to Madame Defarge, an evil figure from informed her that she was destined to become a “ruler of the
Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities—an ominous allusion nation,” an early indication of her brave, but ultimately unsuc-
for the right, given the novel is about the French Revolution. cessful, political ambitions.
And supporters of Barack Obama, As some feminists have argued,
her challenger for the Democratic
nomination, have even presented !"#$%&'"()**+',"(-)" spiritualism itself was a means for
women to have a voice in a male-dom-
her as an Orwellian “Big Sister,” in
a 1984-style YouTube clip. But the (./(-"#&0"&",.)&()." inated nineteenth-century America,
their “messages from beyond” taken
most extreme, perhaps, is the rather
bizarre suspicion that Hillary, like
(-.)&("(-&'"&"1.)&2-)." more seriously than their more mun-
dane pronouncements. True or not,
her ex-President husband, is really
the envoy of the occult secret society
()**+',"&"*+)3 being a medium was something
Victoria made good use of. She and her
the Illuminati, a powerful, hidden sister, “Tennie C” (Tennessee) Claflin,
cabal that for centuries has been trying to take over the world jointly “cured” the prominent millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt,
or, depending on your sources, has already been in the driver’s who had just lost his wife, and this led to his setting them up
seat for some time. with their own highly successful brokerage firm (the first on
More than a century ago, another woman had the honor of Wall Street run by women) and magazine, Woodhull and Claflin’s
being the first of her gender to run for President, and to receive Weekly. (It may have helped that Tennie became the seventy-six-
a bashing for it. As irony would have it, she, too, had some claim year-old Vanderbilt’s lover.) In the magazine, according to one
to occult fame. Her name was Victoria Clafl in Woodhull, and as account, Victoria “preached her doctrines of free love, attacked
one of the nineteenth century’s most fascinating women’s rights the rich (though not, of course, Vanderbilt), and espoused
advocates, it’s surprising she is not better known. Among her Marxism.” In fact, along with its advocacy of short skirts, spiritu-
many distinctions, she was the second woman ever to address alism, women’s suffrage, free love, vegetarianism, homeopathy,
Congress (on women’s right to vote), the first to address the licensed prostitution, and birth control, the newspaper printed
House Judiciary Committee, and in 1872, as mentioned, the the first English translation of The Communist Manifesto.
first woman to run for U.S. President. Her opponents were the The success of the brokerage firm and the newspaper made
incumbent, Ulysses S. Grant, and the newspaper giant Horace Victoria famous. In April 1870, she announced her plans to run
Greeley. Her running mate was the fi rst black vice-presidential for President, as candidate for the Equal Rights Party, whose
candidate, the ex-slave Frederick Douglass. membership included an unusual coalition of feminists, work-
Victoria Woodhull was born in Homer, Ohio, in 1838. ers, spiritualists, Communists, and “free lovers.” Yet not all
According to her biographer, her father was a con man and advocates of women’s rights were taken with Victoria. Susan B.
thief; her mother, an illegitimate, illiterate religious fanatic. Anthony, in particular, had her reservations. And while many
Her early years were full of poverty, filth, and squalor. Victoria were willing to talk about free love in salons, fewer were willing
displayed mediumistic and paranormal powers early on, and to put theory into practice—a double standard that another free
!"#$%&'()#&*!+&,--..."* "/01/!2...034!341.56
love advocate, Mary Wollstonecraft, had encountered almost personally. Victoria broke the story in her magazine, announc-
a century earlier. What was worse, “Mrs. Satan,” as Victoria’s ing that America’s most famous preacher privately engaged
detractors began to call her (it hasn’t quite gotten to that level in the free love he publicly castigated. Beecher was eventually
for Hillary yet), not only advocated free love, she also preached exonerated, though for her sins, Elizabeth Tilton was excom-
an unholy belief in spirits. municated from the church. And Victoria, who did nothing
Ironically, it was free love itself that linked Victoria with a but print the story, was arrested for sending “obscene material”
scandal that, as the cliché goes, rocked the nation, generating through the mail. She spent Election Day 1872 in jail, a fate
as much publicity at the time as the Monica Lewinsky affair many a Hillary-basher would no doubt enjoy seeing repeated.
did in the 1990s. It involved the hugely successful preacher and Most people were happy that Mrs. Satan was getting her
“deafening foghorn of virtue,” Henry Ward Beecher (brother of comeuppance for slandering one of the nation’s celebrities;
Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin), and was apparently a woman telling the truth was a greater threat than a
known as the Beecher-Tilton Affair. preacher telling a lie. But after a time, many did also realize that
Beecher had been caught in an adulterous affair with the defending free speech was more important than denouncing
wife of Theodore Tilton, one of his closest disciples. Like Tilton free love, and they came to Victoria’s defense. She was eventu-
himself, his young wife, Elizabeth (Libby), adored and admired ally acquitted, but the battle ruined her. She lost the brokerage
Beecher. The charismatic preacher apparently was able to elicit firm and the magazine and received death threats. There was
absolute confidence and love from his followers, but in Libby’s no legal ground for Victoria’s arrest, and in hindsight it seems
case, this took a more-than-platonic form. At first transported clear that the government did what it could to teach Mrs. Satan
by their liaison, Libby soon had misgivings, and eventually, she a lesson, one that future female presidential candidates did well
confessed to her husband. Although naturally furious, Tilton to note. Given the rising rhetoric as Election Day looms closer,
agreed to Libby’s demand not to denounce Beecher. But he it’s a wonder the spirit of Victoria isn’t raised more often.
couldn’t contain himself and eventually mentioned the affair to
GARY LACHMAN is the author of several books on consciousness and culture,
the feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton then told Victoria, most recently Rudolf Steiner: An Introduction to his Life and Work (2007). A founding
who became as furious as Tilton. Beecher had repeatedly member of the rock group Blondie, he was inducted in 2006 into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame.
denounced free love from the pulpit and had attacked Victoria
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voices from the edge
What have you changed your mind about?

Every year, New York literary agent and science writer John Brockman poses
one question to hundreds of the world’s leading scientists, writers, and futurists
and publishes their answers on his website, www.edge.org. In 2008, he asked,
“What have you changed your mind about and why?” Of the 165 responses to
his question, two in particular, by Stewart Brand and Rupert Sheldrake, stood
out in our minds so much that we wanted to share them with our readers.
Good Old Stuff Sucks The Precautionary Principle tells me I should worry about
by Stewart Brand everything new because it might have hidden dangers. The
handwringers should worry more about the old stuff. It’s
mostly crap.
IN THE ’90 S I WAS PRAISING the remarkable grassroots suc- (New stuff is mostly crap too, of course. But the best new
cess of the building preservation movement. Keep the fabric stuff is invariably better than the best old stuff.)
and continuity of the old buildings and neighborhoods alive!
Revive those sash windows. STEWART BRAND, Sixties counterculture pioneer and founder of the Whole
Earth Catalog, is also cofounder of the website The Well, the Global Business
As a landlocked youth in Illinois I mooned over the yacht
Network, and the Long Now Foundation. He has authored several books,
sales pictures in the back of sailboat books. I knew what I including How Buildings Learn (1994) and The Clock of the Long Now: Time and
wanted—a gaff-rigged ketch! Wood, of course. Responsibility (1999).
The Christmas mail order catalog people know what my
age group wants (I’m 69). We want to give a child wooden
blocks, Monopoly or Clue, a Lionel train. We want to give our-
selves a bomber jacket, a fancy leather belt, a fine cotton shirt.
We study the Restoration Hardware catalog. My own Whole
Earth Catalog, back when, pushed no end of retro stuff in a The Skepticism
back-to-basics agenda.
Well, I bought a sequence of wooden sailboats. Their
of Believers
gaff rigs couldn’t sail to windward. Their leaky wood hulls by Rupert Sheldrake
and decks were a maintenance nightmare. I learned that the
fiberglass hulls we’d all sneered at were superior in every way I USED TO THINK OF SKEPTICISM as a primary intellectual vir-
to wood. tue, whose goal was truth. I have changed my mind. I now see
Remodeling an old farmhouse two years ago and replac- it as a weapon.
ing its sash windows, I discovered the current state of win- Creationists opened my eyes. They use the techniques
dow technology. A standard Andersen window, factory-made of critical thinking to expose weaknesses in the evidence for
exactly to the dimensions you want, has superb insulation natural selection, gaps in the fossil record, and problems with
qualities; superb hinges, crank, and lock; a flick-in, flick-out evolutionary theory. Is this because they are seeking truth?
screen; and it looks great. The same goes for the new kinds No. They believe they already know the truth. Skepticism is a
of doors, kitchen cabinetry, and even furniture feet that are weapon to defend their beliefs by attacking their opponents.
available—all drastically improved. Skepticism is also an important weapon in the defense of
The message finally got through. Good old stuff sucks. commercial self-interest. According to David Michaels, who
Sticking with the fine old whatevers is like wearing 100% cot- was assistant secretary for environment, safety, and health in
ton in the mountains; it’s just stupid. the U.S. Department of Energy in the 1990s, the strategy used
Give me 100% not-cotton clothing, genetically modified by the tobacco industry to create doubt about inconvenient
food (from a farmers’ market, preferably), this-year’s laptop, evidence has now been adopted by corporations making toxic
cutting-edge dentistry, and drugs. products such as lead, mercury, vinyl chloride, and benzene.
!"#$%&'()#&*!+&,--..."/ "0120!3...14514!1.67
When confronted with evidence that their activities are causing 115 mocks those who make idols of silver and gold: “They
harm, the standard response is to hire researchers to muddy have mouths, and speak not: eyes have they, and see not.”
the waters, branding findings that go against the industry’s At the Reformation, the Protestants deployed the full force
interests as “junk science.” As Michaels noted, “Their conclu- of biblical scholarship and critical thinking against the ven-
sions are almost always the same: the evidence is ambiguous, eration of relics, cults of saints, and other “superstitions” of
so regulatory action is unwarranted.” Climate change skeptics the Catholic Church. Atheists take religious skepticism to its
use similar techniques. ultimate limits; but they are defending another faith, a faith
In a penetrating essay called “The Skepticism of Believers,” in science.
Sir Leslie Stephen, a pioneering agnostic (and the father of In practice, the goal of skepticism is not the discovery of
Virginia Woolf), argued that skepticism is inevitably partial. truth, but the exposure of other people’s errors. It plays a use-
“In regard to the great bulk of ordinary beliefs, the so-called ful role in science, religion, scholarship, and common sense.
skeptics are just as much believers as their opponents.” Then But we need to remember that it is a weapon serving belief
as now, those who proclaim themselves skeptics had strong or self-interest; we need to be skeptical of skeptics. The more
beliefs of their own. As Stephen put it in 1893, “The thinkers militant the skeptic, the stronger the belief.
generally charged with skepticism are equally charged with an
excessive belief in the constancy and certainty of the so-called RUPERT SHELDRAKE , a London biologist, is the author of more than seventy-
‘laws of nature.’ They assign a natural cause to certain phe- five technical papers and nine books, including The Sense of Being Stared At:
nomena as confidently as their opponents assign a supernatu- And Other Aspects of the Extended Mind (2003) and The Presence of the Past:
Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature (1988).
ral cause.”
Skepticism has even deeper roots in religion than in
Explore the work of Rupert Sheldrake at
science. The Old Testament prophets were withering in wie.org/Sheldrake
their scorn for the rival religions of the Holy Land. Psalm
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May–July 2008 37
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,
ATHEISTS WITH ATTITUDE
ew eism
e n ath
h t
to t bou nd h
i d e e a s a fait
g u at eril us
b
r ief l de he p ligio
b t
A ltura nd of re
cu d, a ses
Go omi
pr
ATHEISTS
WITH INTRODUCTION
“TO YOU, I’M AN ATHEIST,” Woody Allen
ATTITUDE
once said. “To God, I’m the loyal oppo-
sition.” By most standards, it would
seem that the loyal opposition has had
a pretty good century, at least in the
West. Indeed, doubt, disbelief, and
outright atheism have in the last hun-
dred years made inroads into our lives
by Carter Phipps and our society that were simply never
considered possible before the seven-
& Joel Pitney teenth century. Today we live in a secu-
lar atmosphere that would be shocking
to a visitor from a previous age. In the
last decades, some astute observers of
Western culture even prophesied that
atheism and secularism were the future
of the species, and that eventually all
! !
notions of God would retire from public
life, following the path of previously sig-
nificant deities such as Thor, Zeus, and
Apollo into decline and irrelevance.
Well, so much for the hubris of
futurists. Despite the growing secular-
ism of our contemporary world and
the continuing decline of traditional
religious forms, God, in all of his or her
various forms, is far from vanquished.
If anything, recent years have seen a
growing interest in nontraditional spiri-
tuality and even a resurgence of inter-
est in more traditional forms of religion
itself. And that’s just in the West. In
other parts of the world, God is on the
!"#$%&'()%)*+#,-*(.//00012 13-43!2000-56"5160$7
rise, with the monotheistic religions of books denouncing religion and God religion and spirituality than mere belief,
Islam and Christianity growing quite as dangerous notions every reason- or faith in a mythical God, and it remains
rapidly in much of the developing world. able person should reject. These “new to be seen if the cultural debate will be
For some dyed-in-the-wool secu- atheists,” as they have been dubbed, able to embrace the more subtle and
larists, it must all seem a little too are not necessarily new in their ideas ultimately more profound aspects of this
much, a nightmare revisited, a brief (one possible exception being Dennett’s perennial issue.
emergence from the fog of supersti- proposal that science should study As for the editors of WIE, we remain
tion into the light of truth, science, and religion) but in their vehemence. And curious observers of the new atheism,
reason, followed by a cultural backslide they have sparked a public debate over encouraged by its articulate defense
into a demon-haunted world. Indeed, the relationship between religion, God, of modernity, science, and reason, but
in the midst of this resurgence of faith, modernity, reason, and science. disturbed by its tendency to demonize all
what are the faithless supposed to do? “Faith is believing what you know things spiritual and to associate ratio-
Apparently, write books. And, ain’t so,” wrote Mark Twain, one of his- nality exclusively with a materialistic
in fact, they have. Bestsellers. Lots tory’s more astute, and humorous, reli- view of the universe. Surely there is a
of them. As it turns out, in our post- gious skeptics. But is all faith really the place for a deeply rational spirituality to
9/11 age of iPhones and IHOPs, god- same? The new atheists are unequivo- thrive in the cultural environs of future
lessness has some real marketing cal and unrelenting, and they tend to civilizations. In the meantime, we offer
appeal. Tapping the antireligious vein, see all expressions of spirituality and here a brief six-point guide to these new
Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, godliness as water from the same poi- “atheists with attitude” and the current
Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett, have soned well. But there is a great deal cultural tempest they are stirring up.
all authored highly praised and popular more to the complex phenomenon of
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
TIMELINE:
1
PART
The first recorded incidence of atheism came during the
THE EVOLUTION OF ATHEISM Axial Age, when many of the world’s great traditions
were born. From Buddha to Jesus and the early
In the delicate balance of natural ecosystems, a Christians, these spiritual pioneers were labeled atheists
predator cannot exist without its prey. Similarly, in and often persecuted for their rejection of the pagan
the world of human theology, an atheist cannot exist gods worshipped by the religious orthodoxy of their day.
without a God to deny. And just as predators have
co-evolved with the creatures they’ve hunted for
thousands of years—an adaptation in one leading to a AXIAL AGE & EARLY CHRISTIANITY
further adaptation in the other—atheism, and the God 9TH CENTURY BCE – 3RD CENTURY CE
(or gods) it denies, has also been evolving. From the
first Christians who were labeled atheists for rejecting Buddha (c. 563–483 BCE)
the pagan gods of Rome to the Enlightenment Was Buddha an atheist? In one sense, he certainly was. His
philosophers who denied the God of the Church, outrageous example as an individual who found liberation
each new stage of atheism has been a criticism of the through his own contemplation of emptiness rather than
ruling ideology that made way for humanity’s next by worshipping the reigning Hindu devas made him quite
understanding of the ultimate nature of reality. unpopular among the Brahmanic priests of ancient India.
May–July 2008 39
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PART The War Of Words
The New Atheists
Richard Dawkins Sam Harris

Evolutionary Biologist, Popular Science Writer Author of The End of Faith
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably “We must begin speaking freely about what
the most unpleasant character in all of fic- is really in these holy books of ours, beyond
tion: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, the timid heterodoxies of modernity—the gay
unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, blood- and lesbian ministers, the Muslim clerics
thirsty ethnic-cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, who have lost their taste for public executions, or the Sunday
infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, churchgoers who have never read their Bibles quite through. A
sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” close study of these books, and of history, demonstrates that
The God Delusion there is no act of cruelty so appalling that it cannot be justified,
or even mandated, by recourse to their pages. It is only by the
most acrobatic avoidance of passages whose canonicity has
Christopher Hitchens never been in doubt that we can escape murdering one another
Author, Journalist, Literary Critic outright for the glory of God.”
“We are not immune to the lure of wonder The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
and mystery and awe: we have music and
art and literature, and find that the seri-
ous ethical dilemmas are better handled by
Daniel Dennett
Professor of Philosophy
Shakespeare and Tolstoy and Schiller and Dostoyevsky and
George Eliot than in the mythical morality tales of the holy “The spell that I say must be broken is the taboo
books. Literature, not scripture, sustains the mind and— against a forthright, scientific, no-holds-barred
since there is no other metaphor—also the soul. . . . investigation of religion as one natural phenom-
We believe with certainty that an ethical life can be lived enon among many. But [there is a] fear that if
without religion. And we know for a fact that the corollary that spell is broken—if religion is put under the bright lights and the
holds true—that religion has caused innumerable people microscope—there is a serious risk of breaking a different and much
not just to conduct themselves no better than others, but more important spell: the life-enriching enchantment of religion
to award themselves permission to behave in ways that itself. . . . You can only lose your virginity once, and some are afraid
would make a brothel-keeper or an ethnic cleanser raise that imposing too much knowledge on some topics could rob people
an eyebrow. of their innocence, crippling their hearts in the guise of expanding
their minds. . . . Like the revivalist preacher, I say unto you, O religious
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
folks who fear to break the taboo: Let go! Let go!
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
TIMELINE: THE EVOLUTION OF ATHEISM continued
As Christianity flowered throughout Europe in the Middle

Ages, denying the existence of God was an unthinkable
position. The atheists of this period were those “heretical”
scientists, philosophers, and rogue theologians whose
“alternative” beliefs about God were considered threatening
to the dogma of the Church.
THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE REFORMATION

2ND CENTURY – 17TH CENTURY
Socrates (c. 470–399 BCE) Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677)

Socrates chose to follow his own revelation of Seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza was
spirit—an inner “daemonic” voice—rather than considered an atheist by both the Christian and Jewish
the Greek gods of the state and for this heresy establishments for suggesting that God was not an
won the title “atheos” among the statesmen of anthropomorphic being interfering in the affairs of humanity
ancient Greece. and responding to personal prayers from a distance but
an infinite substance encompassing all aspects of reality,
including spirit, nature, matter, and mind.
!"#$%&'()%)*+#,-*(.//000"! 12342!400056"+6-4078
. . . And Their Critics
Terry Eagelton Gregg Easterbrook

Literary Critic, Author of The Meaning of Life Journalist, Author of The Progress Paradox
“Imagine someone holding forth on biology “Millions of Jews, Christians, and Muslims do
whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book not believe God is an angry Absolute, do not
of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of believe tsunamis and wars are ‘God’s will,’
what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on do not wish ill to other faiths, do not have any
theology. Card-carrying rationalists like Dawkins . . . are in one problem with natural selection theory—but still look up in wonder
sense the least well-equipped to understand what they castigate, at the night sky and dream there may be so much more to exis-
since they don’t believe there is anything there to be understood, tence than just scurrying about the streets of our little world. God
or at least anything worth understanding. This is why they invari- Delusion ignores believers who think this way, because they can-
ably come up with vulgar caricatures of religious faith that would not be used as straw men.”
make a first-year theology student wince.” “Does God Believe in Richard Dawkins?” Beliefnet.com
“Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching,” a review of
The God Delusion in the London Review of Books Michael Ruse
Philosopher of Science, Author of Darwinism
Alister McGrath and its Discontents
Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford “The Dawkins-Dennett school allows no com-
“Atheism is a superb example of a modern promise. Religion is false. Religion is danger-
metanarrative—a totalising view of things, locked ous. Religion must be fought in every way. There
into the world view of the Enlightenment. So what can be no working with the enemy. Those like
happens . . . when a new interest in spirituality me who work with religious people are like the appeasers before
surges through Western culture? When the cultural pressures that the Nazis. . . . The creationists and the ID [Intelligent Design] sup-
once made atheism seem attractive are displaced by others that porters simply love Dawkins and his ilk. . . . Every time the athe-
make it seem intolerant, unimaginative and disconnected from spiri- ists open their mouths they win converts to the literalist cause.
tual realities? . . . The Enlightenment is over, the world has changed, The creationists have been saying all along that Darwinism equals
and atheism must change as well. . . . Atheism has, quite simply, lost atheism, and now the Darwinians apparently agree! Americans in
much of its moral and intellectual cutting edge in recent decades. the middle—meaning, generally, religious Americans in the mid-
And unless it sorts itself out, it is not going to regain it.” dle—get the message that science, and Darwinism particularly,
The Times Online threatens their faith.”
“Fighting the Fundamentalists,” Skeptical Inquirer Magazine
In the late eighteenth century, as the Enlightenment principles of Existentialist philosophers of the nineteenth and twentieth
rationality and freedom of thought were birthed in the salons of Paris, centuries, such as Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), Albert Camus
atheism was no longer a derogatory term assigned to the impious (1913–1960), and Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), took atheism to
but an active statement reflecting a whole new worldview in which a whole new level. Building on the insights of the Enlightenment,
humanity, not the Christian God, could determine its own fate through they bravely wrestled with the philosophical implications of a
the individual capacity for reason and creativity. world in which, as Nietzsche put it, “God is dead.”
THE ENLIGHTENMENT EXISTENTIALISM & COMMUNISM

18TH – 19TH CENTURY 19TH – 20TH CENTURY
Baron d’Holbach!(1723–1789) Communism

Baron d’Holbach, whose salon in eighteenth- With the rise of communism in the twentieth century, atheism
century Paris was host to many of the most became the official state “religion” in many countries. In 1954,
influential figures of the Enlightenment, reacting to the Godlessness of the “Red Tide,” the United States,
made the first public denial of the existence which 175 years earlier had become the first nation to officially
of God in The System of Nature, considered to separate church and state, added the words “under God” to the
be the “bible of atheism.” Pledge of Allegiance.
May–July 2008 41
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PART
Four White Men Who Aren’t Living in the Clouds
The new documentary The Four familiarity with that which they are denouncing. It’s sort of like
Horsemen features Richard Dawkins, watching British sports commentators talk about American
Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, football: They don’t like it, they don’t understand it, they don’t
and Sam Harris sitting around a table understand why anyone would like it, and they don’t have any
talking. It doesn’t sound like much, but real interest in learning more about it. It is simply a bizarre
this support group for the religiously custom practiced by foreigners.
challenged is an intellectual feast. Harris is arguably the most interesting of the four horsemen,
Along with all of the praise and as he pursues the most compelling avenues of discussion—
success that the new atheism has asking, for example, if any of the many criticisms leveled at their
reaped in the last year has come much scorn as well. And work have caused moments of doubt or hesitation. He also brings
last fall, perhaps seeking a little solace in the company of up the important matter of the contemplative and mystical prac-
their ideological brethren, this quartet of thinkers sat down tices of the great religious traditions, wondering what role these
together to record a conversation on the trials and tribulations experiences might have in a post-religious context. Harris even
of today’s unbeliever. The format was simple: a couple of cam- manages to draw out some important points of disagreement
eras, a few hours of film, a table, a martini for Dawkins, a pack among them, provoking some of the best parts of the dialogue.
of cigarettes for Hitchens, and presto!—instant documentary. But the primary contribution of The Four Horsemen is its
In fact, The Four Horsemen is a fascinating journey through capacity to stimulate the mind, to provoke one to reconsider
the mind of the modern atheist. It is truly a must-see feature the impact of the religious traditions and rethink one’s own
for anyone interested in the relationship between religion and beliefs and attitudes toward these powerful cultural behe-
modern society. All four of these distinguished scholars are moths that continue to have such influence on human life. Will
articulate and passionate in their denunciations of religion you agree with the new atheists? Maybe not—we didn’t—but
and mythic belief systems. But even as they discuss these we appreciated their efforts to make us all think more clearly
weighty and significant matters, they all also share a strange, about what we actually believe about life, and about what God,
breezy, isn’t-it-obvious tone that betrays a certain lack of real gods, or nondeities we have faith in, and why.
TIMELINE: THE EVOLUTION OF ATHEISM continued
Led by Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and

Sam Harris, the new atheists are on a mission to protect modernity
and scientific rationality against the rising influence of religious
Into the future . . .
extremism. But how new is their atheism? The God they’re attacking According to most contemporary definitions,
seems to bear a striking resemblance to the one laid to rest over two atheism is the outright denial of God and the
hundred years ago in the Enlightenment salons of Paris. spiritual dimension altogether. But what it means
to be an atheist has not always been so godless. In
fact,
t atheists
h tthroughout
h history h
have often
f rejected
j
THE NEW ATHEISTS not God in general, but the particular interpretation
of God or spirit that was predominant in their time
21ST CENTURY and culture. The ancient pagan gods gave way to the
traditional monotheistic God, which gave way to
modernity’s God of reason and rationality. As a new
antireligious wave sweeps through contemporary
culture, and as scientific materialism becomes
for many a metaphysical belief system, it raises a
question: What will be the “atheism” of the future?
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PART
4
Letting Go of God
Comedian Julia Sweeney and Her Heavenly Breakup
A
theism isn’t just limited to philosophers and In the end, she’s left with no choice but to call it quits with her
scientists. Comedian Julia Sweeney, formerly Father in the sky. “It’s not you God, it’s me,” she says. “It’s
of Saturday Night Live (remember Pat, the because I take you so seriously that I can’t believe in you.” As
androgynous office worker?), is touring the thoughtful as she is funny, Sweeney conveys a genuine spiri-
country with her hilarious stand-up routine, tual curiosity in her story and, unlike many of the new atheists,
“Letting Go of God,” spreading the anti-gospel to all who will puts God on trial in a context of “innocent before proven guilty.”
listen. Available in both CD and book form, Sweeney tells the In the end, Sweeney lets go of the Christian God of her child-
story of her lifelong search for God, tracking her evolution hood (who reminds her of “an old hippie who still smokes”), but
from devout Catholic schoolgirl with a crush on Jesus, through unfortunately gives little credence to her own spiritual pas-
Deepak Chopra and quantum consciousness, to a final reckon- sion, which has compelled her along the way.
ing with the God that she’s spent her entire life struggling with.
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PART
5
The Metaphysics
of Lasagna
A Parable by Robert Godwin
M
aterialists believe that, unlike theists, they knowledge (he would never deign to say “truth”) is merely a
start from “zero,” without any dogma or property of sentences. Either a sentence can be justified or it
metaphysics at all. The Catholic philosopher, cannot. I insisted that it was impossible to make even a trivial
Stanley Jaki, compares it to baseball. Secular statement about the world without an implicit metaphysic,
philosophers always begin at first base but usually a bad one. He impatiently blurted, “Okay,” pointing to
offer nothing in their philosophy that can justify how they have the remnants of our dinner. “The lasagna was good. Where’s
arrived there. But we all know that you cannot steal first base. the metaphysics in that?”
Rather, you must earn your way there. The materialist, or “So let me get this straight,” I said. “Are you dividing the
empiricist, begins at first base with the gratuitous dogma that world into a realm of intelligible objects and immaterial
nothing exists except our perceptions filtered through our pre- subjects, and affirming that the latter can know the truth of
conceptual logical categories. But from where did this premise the former?”
arrive? It is not a sensory perception filtered through a logical That was the first time someone ever called me “vulgar”
category. Rather, it is metaphysical dogma. without my having uttered a profanity. But what could he say?
I had this very conversation with an eminent historian a few The heavenly lasagna existed. And it was good. Far be it from
years back. In order to communicate at all, we spoke across me to try to talk someone out of their religious beliefs.
a truly cavernous metaphysical divide. I actually enjoyed
it, although he seemed to quickly become exasperated. He Robert Godwin is a clinical psychologist, independent scholar,
insisted that there is no such thing as metaphysics, and that and author of One Cosmos under God.
!"#$%&'()%)*+#,-*(.//000"+ 12342!400056"+6"3078
PART
6
Friedrich Nietzsche,
Hard-Core Atheists, and the
Fate of a Godless World
What happens “The new atheism is very much like the the absence of God means that you are the
when you intro- old secular humanism rebuked by the creator of the values you live by, an intoler-
duce one of the hard-core atheists for its mousiness in fac- able burden from which most people would
world’s foremost ing up to what the absence of God should seek an escape. Are you ready to allow sim-
theologians to ple logic to lead you to the real truth about
really mean. If you’re going to be an athe-
the new atheists? That’s the premise the death of God? Before settling in to a
ist, the most rugged version of godlessness
of a new book by esteemed scholar
demands complete consistency. Go all the truly atheistic worldview, you would have
of science and religion John Haught,
way and think the business of atheism to experience a Nietzschean madman’s
of Georgetown University. In God and
through to the bitter end; before you get sensation of straying through an ‘infinite
the New Atheism: A Critical Response to
Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens, Haught too comfortable with the godless world you nothingness.’ You would be required to
takes up the theological banner, turns long for, you will be required by the logic of summon up an unprecedented degree of
it into a spear, and directs it right at the any consistent skepticism to pass through courage if you plan to wipe away the whole
heart of the new atheists’ critique of the disorienting wilderness of nihilism. horizon of transcendence. Are you willing
religion. Haught is erudite and theologi- Do you have the courage to do that? You to risk madness? If not, then you are not
cally well traveled, and he spares little will have to adopt the tragic heroism of a really an atheist.”
sympathy for his atheist adversaries, Sisyphus, or realize that true freedom in John Haught
none of whom have much respect for God and the New Atheism
the ins and outs of theology. Perhaps
they will want to reconsider after they
read this multilayered response to
their work. Despite his clear frustration
with the popularity of these purveyors
of unbelief, Haught fights above the THE PARABLE OF
belt, keeping his polemic from straying
outside of the philosophical and theo-
THE MADMAN
logical, while still landing some heavy
“The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes.
blows. And he has some fun along the
‘Whither is God?’ he cried. ‘I will tell you. We have killed him—you and I. All
way. In one of the most interesting pas-
sages, he takes the new atheists to task of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the
for being “soft,” distinguishing their sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we
polemics from “hard-core” atheists like doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now?
Nietzsche and Camus and Sartre who, Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continu-
according to Haught, had the courage ally? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or
and intellectual honesty to face up to down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the
the real implications of “deicide,” or breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually
killing God. closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear
In the following excerpt, Haught nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we
draws on the work of these hard-core smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God
atheists as he criticizes the superficiality is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.’”
of their more contemporary brethren:
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (1882)
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.
The Guru & the Pandit

with Andrew Cohen & Ken Wilber
Dialogue XIX
A Kosmic Roller-
!"#$%&'()**+++"! ,-./-!0+++&1.!1&2+34
-Coaster Ride
W
!
hat is the purpose of the universe? Is the evolutionary
process God’s merry-go-round, repeating in infinite
cycles, or is it a deadly serious endeavor charting ever-
new ground? Metaphysical sparks fly between the
Guru and the Pandit as they tackle some of the biggest questions
that philosophers have wrestled with for millennia.
ANDREW COHEN: I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what

it really means to consciously evolve—to deliberately and
intentionally create and co-create the future. It gets clearer
and clearer to me every day that it really is up to us—each
and every one of us, individually and collectively—to create
the future that we hope for in our highest moments. When we
reach that point in our own development where we unequivo-
cally have accepted the fact that no one else is going to save
us—not a mythic God in the sky or “destiny” or a miracle—we
realize that the next step in the evolutionary process really is
in our own hands.
KEN WILBER: That’s right. There is a phrase that Julian
Huxley really delighted in, which is that “man is evolution
May–July 2008 51
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become conscious of itself.” And, in a sense, that’s certainly

true, given our perspective that evolution is in part Spirit’s
own Self-unfolding and Self-developing and Self-growth.
COHEN: It’s amazing how, when we really begin to let this in,
it gives us a completely different perspective on who we are,
who or what God is, and what our role is in the creative pro-
cess. Often when I speak about this, I like to take people on a
theological and philosophical fantasy ride back to before the
beginning of time, just to invoke the enormity of the creative
process and go beyond all our conditioned ways of thinking
about this. Shall we take the plunge?
WILBER: Sure!
COHEN: Okay. Now this is, of course, purely theological

speculation and fun. But if we dare to let ourselves think in
ANDREW COHEN: GURU
[n., Sanskrit]: one who teaches spiritual liberation from rather audacious terms for a moment, we could say that at
his or her own direct experience or realization. the very beginning, at the moment when the evolutionary
Self-described “idealist with revolutionary incli- process began, when the initial leap from formlessness to
nations” and widely recognized as a defining voice form took place, you and I must have been there. All matter,
in the emerging field of evolutionary spirituality, time, and space were a great singularity—compressed into
Cohen has developed an original teaching for the one fine point. Think about it for a moment. Is there any-
twenty-first century which he calls Evolutionary where else that we could have been at the moment when the
Enlightenment. He is also the founder and editor in universe was born? That one point was the only place to be,
chief of What Is Enlightenment? magazine.
and in fact, we were all there. We were there, but we were
there as I. Before the universe was born, there was only One,
and that One had not yet become the Many. So there was only
KEN WILBER: PANDIT
You, and You were alone. So then, if we follow this inquiry to
[n., Sanskrit]: a scholar, one who is deeply proficient and
immersed in spiritual wisdom. the next step, just for the fun of it, the question is: Why did
Self-described “defender of the dharma, an intel- the One become the Many? Why did something come from noth-
lectual samurai,” Wilber is one of the most highly ing? There must have been some form of an intention in that
regarded philosophers alive today, and his work One without a second to take that leap. And since you were
offers a comprehensive and original synthesis of the only one, the only reasonable conclusion is that you made
the world’s great psychological, philosophical, and that choice to do this. To do what? To create the universe. As
spiritual traditions. His books include A Brief History the creative principle, which is one way of defining God, you/
of Everything and Integral Spirituality. we/I chose to take form as this whole unfolding process. And
from a certain point of view, what else could there have been
for us to do?
WILBER: Well, yes, if you want to get metaphysical about it,
you can see that it is all part of the whole Kosmic game. If
you were absolutely perfect Spirit, resting in formless empti-
ness, delighting in your own eternal bliss and omniscience,
what would you do next? And the answer is—
COHEN: —exactly what I’m doing now: becoming the entire
universe!
WILBER: That’s exactly right.
COHEN: But of course, it’s only possible for us to say this now
that we’ve come this far in the process, and we’re able to have
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WHY DID SOMETHING
COME FROM NOTHING?
History’s great philosophers contemplate life’s
most fundamental question.
this evolutionarily enlightened cognition that leads us to be able
to say that this intention—whatever an intention in the mind of
God would look like, before form and life were created—must
“I t is precisely because there is nothing
within the One that all things are from
it. . . . Seeking nothing, possessing nothing,
have been there from the very beginning. And we realize that
lacking nothing, the One is perfect and, in
the spiritual impulse that begins to awaken, that compels us to
our metaphor, has overflowed, and its exuber-
seek enlightenment, to consciously evolve, is that same original
ance has produced the new: this product has
intention that must have been there from the very beginning but
turned again to its begetter
that somehow we have lost touch with for billions of years.
and been filled and has
WILBER: Yes, because you can’t go through that whole pro- become its contemplator. . . .”
cess of evolution knowing that you are God. That’s just not
going to work. So you would have to forget who you were; Plotinus
(c. 205–270)
you’d have to get lost—convincingly get lost—or it’s not a Fifth Ennead, Second Tractate
game and it’s no fun at all! So you get lost, and then slowly
you reawaken. That’s the way this particular game is going. ❖❖❖
“T
And at some point, evolution is going to become self-con- he power of Spirit is only as great as
scious, and then it’s going to become superconscious. But it’s its expression, its depth only as deep
taken fourteen billion years to get to this point. as it dares to spread out and lose itself in its
COHEN: In the mind of God, fourteen billion years probably exposition. . . .
isn’t that long anyway. It might seem like a long, deep sleep “This sacrifice is the externalization
for us, but from God’s point of view, I think he, she, it, or we in which Spirit displays the process of its
are just getting started anyway. If the universe is just begin- becoming Spirit as Time outside of it, and
ning to awaken to itself, and we have no idea how big the equally its Being as Space. This last becom-
universe really is or how many universes there are, then in a ing of Spirit, Nature, is its living immedi-
sense, the awakening is just barely beginning. So in the mind ate Becoming. . . . But the other side of its
of God, maybe fourteen billion years was just a nap! Becoming, History, is a
conscious, self-mediating
WILBER: Yes, absolutely. You know, this may all seem like
process. . . .”
metaphysical speculation, but this Kosmic game is actually,
Georg Hegel
(1770–1831)
Phenomenology of Spirit
At some point, evolution is going
❖❖❖
to become self-conscious, and then
it’s going to become superconscious. “H as creation a final goal? And if so, why
was it not reached at once? Why was
the consummation not realized from the
But it’s taken fourteen billion years beginning? To these questions there is but
to get to this point. one answer: Because God is Life, and not
merely Being. All life has a destiny, and is
Ken Wilber
subject to suffering and to becoming. To this,
then, God has of his own free will subjected
himself. . . . Being is sensible
fundamentally, the single major philosophical topic right up
only in becoming.”
through Hegel. It really only came to a crashing end with
fl atland scientific materialism. What Hegel and the German
Friedrich Schelling
idealists, for example, were trying to ask was, starting from (1775–1854)
absolute Being, how do you get to wars and revolutions? Why Philosophical Inquiries into the
on earth would that happen? Nature of Human Freedom
COHEN: Right.
May–July 2008 53
05_GP2.indd 53 3/28/08 11:48:45 PM

“T he whole series of evolution, beginning

with the lowest manifestation of life
and reaching up to the highest . . . must have
been the involution of something else. The
question is: The involution of what? What
WILBER: Why is there something rather than nothing?
was involved? God. . . . This cosmic intelli-
What happened? How did Spirit lose itself? A lot of phi-
gence gets involved, and it manifests, evolves
losophers have played out this question in very intricate
itself, until it becomes the perfect man, the
ways. Plotinus, for example, held that the One goes out
‘Christ-man,’ the ‘Buddha-
of itself into the nous [thought or the Divine Mind]. From
man.’ Then it goes back to
nous proceeds the world soul, and then that goes out of
its own source.”
itself into psyche or individual mind, and finally, matter,
Swami Vivekananda at the lowest level of being. He called that whole process
(1863–1902) “efflux.” And then, he believed, the One returns to itself in
“The Cosmos: The Macrocosm” what he called a “reflux.” I kind of like those terms: efflux
and reflux. Others, like Sri Aurobindo, have used the terms
❖❖❖ “involution” and “evolution” for the same thing—the pro-
cess by which Spirit first throws itself outward and gets
“I f our analysis is correct, it is conscious-

ness, or rather supra-consciousness, that
is at the origin of life. Consciousness, or
lost in matter and then begins to slowly return to itself,
finally awakening as Itself. Hegel, in eight hundred pages
of detailed, dialectical reasoning, tried to show that Being
supra-consciousness, is the name for the
goes out of itself into nothing, and then Being plus nothing
rocket whose extinguished fragments fall
together create Becoming, and then Becoming goes out
back as matter; consciousness, again, is the
of itself, and on and on and on and on through a process
name for that which subsists of the rocket
of involution. Then he has a little phrase, “and the jump to
itself, passing through the fragments and
nature occurs,” which actually is the big bang. And evolu-
lighting them up into organisms. But this
tion begins.
consciousness, which is a need of creation, is
Now, the one difference I have with all these thinkers,
made manifest to itself only where creation
whether it’s Aurobindo or Hegel or Plotinus or Plato, is that
is possible. It lies dormant when life is con-
for almost all of them, evolution is seen as pretty precisely a
demned to automatism; it
rewinding of the videotape of involution, that everything is—
wakens as soon as the possi-
bility of a choice is restored.” COHEN: —already there. It’s all already laid down. As I
understand the notion of involution, it’s almost as if Spirit
Henri Bergson lays down a kind of Kosmic blueprint and then evolution just
(1859–1941)
unfolds according to that already drawn-out map.
Creative Evolution
WILBER: Exactly. And that just won’t work.
❖❖❖ COHEN: Yes. It’s the fact that these structures are not already
laid down that makes the game a lot more exciting.
“G od is the infinite ground of all mental-

ity, the unity of vision seeking physi-
cal multiplicity. The World is the multiplicity
WILBER: It makes it much more exciting when you under-
stand that there really is an authentic creativity in evolution.
of finites, actualities seeking a perfected COHEN: Right. And that’s what ups the stakes for you and me
unity. Neither God, nor the World, reaches and anyone who realizes it. When we awaken to that fact and
static completion. Both are in the grip of simultaneously recognize that we are that One who decided
the ultimate metaphysi- to do this from the beginning of everything, we begin to feel a
cal ground, the creative tremendous sense of urgency and responsibility for the next
advance.” step.
WILBER: That’s what makes it very, very interesting. And of
Alfred North Whitehead
(1861–1947) course, if it happened once, it’s happened billions of times.
Process and Reality
COHEN: Well, that’s an interesting statement—you mean that
in terms of this cycle of involution and evolution, of expansion
and contraction?
!"#$%&'()**+++", -.&/.!/+++0&1!21!2+34
“W e have started with the assertion of
all existence as one Being whose
essential nature is Consciousness, one
Consciousness whose active nature is Force
or Will; and this Being is Delight, this
WILBER: Yes. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. It
Consciousness is Delight, this Force or Will
doesn’t really make sense that it would only happen once.
is Delight. Eternal and inalienable Bliss of
COHEN: Why do you say that? Existence, Bliss of Consciousness, Bliss of
WILBER: I mean, for Spirit, it’s just an infinite cycle of hide Force or Will whether concentrated in itself
and seek. If you do it just once, you would eventually get to a and at rest or active and creative, this is God
point where now you’re awake and everybody’s awake, and and this is ourselves. . . . Concentrated in
everything goes up in bhava samadhi and white light, and itself, it possesses or rather is the essential,
then what? Well, sooner or later, you’re going to play the eternal, inalienable Bliss; active and creative,
game again. So it’s just sort of a continual efflux and reflux, it possesses or rather becomes the delight of
involution and evolution. the play of existence, the play of conscious-
ness, the play of force and will. That play
COHEN: But doesn’t that cancel out the whole notion of
is the universe and that delight is the sole
development? If we say it’s an infinite cycle, then surely
cause, motive, and object of
we’ve been here before.
cosmic existence.”
WILBER: Not in the same way.
COHEN: Well, let’s say it’s true that there is an infinite cycle
Sri Aurobindo
of expansion and contraction that goes on forever. If we’re (1872–1950)
going to really accept that development is part and parcel of The Life Divine
the manifest process at all levels, wherever and whenever
❖❖❖
In the mind of God, fourteen billion

years probably isn’t all that long.
“F or invincible reasons of homogeneity
and coherence, the fibers of cosmogen-
esis require to be prolonged in ourselves far
It might seem that way to us, but more deeply than flesh and bone. We are not
being tossed about and drawn along in the
from God’s point of view, we’re just vital current merely by the material surface of
getting started. our being. But like a subtle fluid, space-time,
having drowned our bodies, penetrates our
Andrew Cohen soul. It fills it and impregnates it. It mingles
with its powers, until the soul soon no longer
it appears and exists, then wouldn’t there have to be devel- knows how to distinguish space-time from its
opment in the expansion and contraction? I mean, wouldn’t own thoughts. Nothing can escape this flux
even that Kosmic process have to be developmental? any longer, for those who know how to see. . . .
The human discovers that, in the striking
WILBER: Well, that’s very likely true. It could just go on and
words of Julian Huxley, we are nothing else
on, with more development occurring each time. But the
than evolution become conscious of itself. . . .
idea that it would just occur once and stop doesn’t make any
Not only do we read the secret of its move-
sense. There would be no reason for it to start in the first
ments in our slightest acts, but to a funda-
place. So it’s an infinite game of hide-and-seek that Spirit is
mental extent we hold it in
playing with itself manifold ways.
our own hands: responsible
COHEN: But when you say that, I start feeling a kind of for its past and its future.”
Buddhist angst! I feel like I want out of here if it’s just going
to go on forever! Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
(1881-1955)
WILBER: Well, yes, but don’t forget that on the other hand, The Human Phenomenon
from the perspective of Being, nothing’s happening at all. It
doesn’t go on forever.
May–July 2008 55
05_GP2.indd 55 3/28/08 8:25:25 PM

COHEN: Yes, of course. But don’t you think that from the per- you decide you want to play go fish or poker by yourself. So
spective of evolution, saying this has all happened an infinite you deal the cards out and take your hand, and then you go
number of times before takes part of the absolute intensity to the other side of the table and try to play the other hand.
out of it? But it’s no fun. The game is no fun because you always know
WILBER: Takes the fun out of it? what the “other person” is doing.
COHEN: Well, that would be a more mundane way to put it. COHEN: Right.
WILBER: I don’t know. When I was a kid, I rode the roller WILBER: There’s only one way you can actually have a game
coaster on Long Island probably eighty times and didn’t feel with yourself—any game, whether it be checkers, chess,
the slightest desire to stop. Not once did I feel that this time poker, dice. You play the other person, and you forget you are
was less fun because I had done it before. Once you find the other person. That amnesia, that ignorance, that avidya
something that’s fun, you do it again and again. And I don’t is the primary ingredient of playing the game. So the Kosmic
think it’s that hard for human beings to see why the game game, on the one hand, is a spontaneous lila or sport or
would get started. I use an example that most people can play, a desire to throw yourself out into myriad forms. And
connect with: When you are a kid and you’re first learning right next to that, co-emerging with it, is this ignorance, this
how to play games, sooner or later you find some game you forgetting. That’s why Plato would say that all knowledge is
really like. Maybe it’s a card game like go fish or a more just remembering. It’s a reconnecting with something that
sophisticated one like twenty-one or poker. You play it with has profoundly been known at the deepest levels. And I think
your friends, and it’s a gas. Then your friends are gone, and that’s certainly an important ingredient. But I agree with you
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in that I don’t think that the entirety of the involutionary arc is WILBER: Yes!
laid down in all of its essentials. COHEN: But that thrill, at least in my own experience, is not
COHEN: Yes. The only problem I have with what you’ve said “I’ve always known this.” It’s more like “Oh, my God, I can’t
is that often when you use the word “game,” I feel like it can believe this!” I think that sense that “I’ve always known
take away from the seriousness of awakening to this Kosmic this” relates more to the Ground of Being, to the deepest
process and recognizing one’s own part in it from the very part of the self that never entered into the stream of time in
beginning, which really puts maximum pressure on the ego. the first place. Whenever we experience that no-place, that
When we call it a game, the self can relax a little bit, which nothing out of which everything emerged, the experience
may be not a good idea! Part of what is so thrilling about is, “I’ve always known this, and actually, this is the place
being on the edge is knowing that you’re responsible for I’ve never left.” And of course, we never do leave once we
actually participating in the creation of something that has awaken to it.
never existed before. WILBER: Well, that’s certainly Nietzsche’s “eternal return.” I
WILBER: Right. And doing so in a way that’s never been done wouldn’t disagree with what you are saying—the recognition
before, even in previous games. part is Ground, not path, and not really fruition either. We’re
COHEN: The experience of this kind of ecstatic creative
humans with form and the capacity to think, and we also
edge is the thrill of radical innovation in partnership with have access to Ground in an intersection of supreme identity,
the creative principle itself. It’s the ultimate ride at Coney although neither one of us alone is the One. Each and every
Island, I guess! one of us is One without a second, in the deepest part.
Touching Enlightenment
WITH DR. REGGIE RAY
W hat does it mean to ì meditate with the bodyî ?

Until you answer this question, explains Reggie
Ray, meditation may be no more than ì a mental
gymnasticî ó something you can practice for years without
fruitful results. In Touching Enlightenment, the esteemed author
Touching Enlightenment
is available through your
local bookseller or at
www.DharmaOcean.org.
DR. REGGIE RAY
of fi ve books about Buddhism guides you back to the original . . . brings us 38 years of study and
practice of the Buddha: a systematic process that results in a intensive meditation practice within the
Tibetan tradition as well as a special gift
profound awareness ì in your body rather than in your head.î
for applying it to the unique problems,
Combining the scholarship that has earned him international inspirations, and spiritual imperatives of
renown with original insights from nearly four decades modern people. He teaches within the
practicing and teaching meditation, Reggie Ray invites you to dharma and meditation lineages of the
explore your own body as the ultimate place of spiritual pilgrimage. great siddha Ch! gyam Trungpa, Rinpoche.
On the faculty of Naropa University since
2008 Tour Schedule its inception, he is the author of several
Vancouver, B.C.: Aug 15–17 Lenox, MA: Oct. 3–5 books including Touching Enlightenment,
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Chicago, IL: Sept. 26–28 Los Angeles, CA: Nov. 14–16, 21–23 please visit www.DharmaOcean.org.
www.DharmaOcean.org
May–July 2008 57
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COHEN: Right, it’s paradoxical. You realize I am the creator in WILBER: No, no, it’s true. In a sense, that’s exactly right.
the midst of the fact that there are six or seven billion other As I said before, this was probably the most common philo-
creators. But the ultimate truth is I’m really the only one. sophical question from the time of Plato and Aristotle all
So what does it mean to be the only one, within the under- the way up to Hegel. Why did something come from nothing?
standing of the fact that there are six or seven billion other Aristotle argues that the Absolute, because it’s perfect,
“only ones” who may or may not know who they really are? does not create anything, because if it did, that would show
The individual who awakens to this fact is inspired to take some sort of lack. Plato says just the opposite. He says, “An
absolute responsibility for what it means to be the only one, Absolute that can’t create is inferior to an Absolute that can.
in the midst of six or seven billion others. It means within My God creates.”
my own means, I’m going to take absolute responsibility for COHEN: Right—but it’s not out of lack.
creating the future. It means I know it’s completely up to me.
It means we’re no longer deferring responsibility, no longer WILBER: No, it’s out of superabundance. As you said, if you
making excuses. just sort of feel into that Ground, that abundance, the issue
This kind of realization puts a different kind of evolu- doesn’t even come up.
tionary stress or evolutionary tension on the individual COHEN: In my retreats and talks, I always say—and I know
to take responsibility in a very practical, very immediate, you agree with this—that the emerging postmodern self must
have the guts to let in that as we evolve, God evolves. That the
evolution of God is our evolution, nondually, which is really
the end of our traditional religious orientations in the most
The spiritual impulse that com- thrilling way and which empowers the self and spiritualizes
postmodern life in the most complete way possible.
pels us to seek enlightenment is
WILBER: Whitehead had a couple of really good terms that
the same original intention that relate to this. I don’t think he really understood nonduality,
has been driving the evolutionary but as limited as his thinking was in some ways, he made
a pretty good start. He had what he called the primordial
process from the very beginning nature of God and the consequent nature of God. The primordial
of the universe. nature is the aspect of God that is unchanging or timeless.
For him, it included things that were, in a sense, archetypes,
Andrew Cohen which he called eternal objects—things like color. You and I
would probably say that the primordial ground is just a form-
less, radical absolute, prior to manifestation, that cannot
and very personal way for what it actually means for me to even be conceived. But either way, it means an ever-present
evolve. You realize I’m the only one who can consciously evolve primordial nature of God. Then Whitehead had what he called
because I’m the one who created all this. That may seem like the consequent nature of God, and that’s basically the world
an audacious statement, but what’s interesting is that when as it evolves. I think that’s a good way to think about it: the
you experience that One and recognize it to be your own consequent nature of God is consequent on us. Our intention-
Self, at the deepest level, you can begin to intuit an answer ality plays a huge part in it. It’s not the only thing, but it’s the
to that perennial question, “Why did something come from only thing that is the locus of Spirit’s original creativity, still
nothing?”—and not as an abstract philosophical specula- expressing itself as the freedom that we have to choose.
tion, but from the inside out, so to speak. In that experience,
you can almost imagine what it would be like to be God, COHEN: Exactly.
abiding for billions of eons of no-time, before the universe WILBER: When we choose, we are Spirit in action.
was created. It becomes apparent that you have only two COHEN: Well, assuming that there is a significant degree of
choices: you could either continue to do what you have been enlightenment.
doing (which is nothing) forever, or you could do the only
possible thing that you could do, which would be to endeavor WILBER: The more enlightenment, the more Spirit, but even
to create a material universe in your own image. I mean, I the intentionality of a worm, small as it is, is Spirit. What we
know this sounds crazy, but— want to do is get the ego and the lesser forms of intentionality
05_GP2.indd 58 3/19/08 3:49:32 PM

out of the way, so that the higher self, or what you call the ecstatic compulsion to create the future. He or she becomes
Authentic Self, which is a deeper, truer form of Spirit’s free- aware of being not separate from God himself, herself, or
dom, can act. That’s the important thing. itself, at the leading edge, endeavoring to create the next
COHEN: Yes, because obviously, a worm can’t consciously
moment. Such an individual realizes that the only one in the
engage in the developmental process as that One without a driver’s seat is me, because I am the one who decided to
second. Only we can. start this roller coaster in the first place. When we embrace
or awaken to the Authentic Self, we realize that I’m not really
WILBER: Yes, but we go up and down the scale ourselves here to live my own life, and I’m not even really here for my
every now and then. I’ve had days where I was not much own liberation. I’m here to create the future, because there’s
higher than a weasel! nothing else for me to do. I am God in manifest form, and it’s
COHEN: Well, at least that’s higher than a worm! really up to me and me alone, because I’m the only one there
WILBER: It’s funny, but it’s an important thing to remember
is to do this. So I find my own liberation as a manifest, incar-
actually—that there is this whole scale of Spirit becoming nate, sentient being through committing myself to creating
more and more awake, more and more free. And the only the future.
thing that rides the very edge of freedom is the Authentic
Self awakening in human beings. Immerse yourself in the complete collection
COHEN: And the individual who is deeply awake to this of Guru & Pandit dialogues online at
wie.org/gurupandit
Authentic Self, which is the evolutionary impulse, feels an
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FEATURE
The View from the

Center of the
Universe
An Interview with
Joel R. Primack & Nancy Ellen Abrams
By Elizabeth Debold
I
n the last few decades, the cultural conversation about
science and religion has become less a scholarly debate
and increasingly like a barroom brawl. Atheists and
theists are wrangling on the radio, in print, and on every
possible bandwidth. The prize is a big one: Who are we?
Where do we come from? Our core identity as humans is at
stake. Are we God’s children, or are we random accidents in
an indifferent universe? In other words, does our existence
matter to something larger than ourselves?
In the midst of this polemical slugfest, something quite
remarkable is emerging from a growing chorus of scientists
whose love for and appreciation of our creative cosmos may
eventually lead beyond this polarization. The Hubble and
other space probes have brought us stunningly gorgeous
!"#$%&'()%*++,,,"( -./0.!1,,,(2(!2!3,45
May–July 2008 63
!"#$%&'()%*++,,,"- -./0.!1,,,(2(!2-1,34
THE VIEW FROM THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
pictures that inspire wonder at what and that the latest research in sci- Cruz called “Cosmology and Culture,”
we are a part of: incandescent nebu- ence can show us how. They don’t which was the basis for their book.
lae that are the cradles of stars and mean that we are at the geographical Primack and Abrams aspire to
glowing supernovae that forge the center of the cosmos but that we are change culture through this new cos-
elements from which we are formed. central along a variety of fascinat- mology. They are on a heroic quest to
The universe is far more vast, explo- ing dimensions that we are only just create a new, scientifically accurate
sively creative, eerily beautiful, and beginning to be aware of. creation story that will inspire us
mysterious than anyone could ever This dynamic husband-and-wife to leap beyond the conflict and divi-
have imagined. The scale of what we team is uniquely qualified to awaken sion that threatens this planet. “If
are in the midst of—the vast dark us to a new view of the cosmos. we intend to navigate Earth’s coming
expanses of space, the infinitesimally Primack, a noted physicist, was one transition . . . with sanity and justice,
small distances traced by subatomic of the principal originators of Cold we will need to inspire high creativity,
particles, and the stretch of space- Dark Matter theory, which is part of intense commitment, and immense
time that extends back for billions the accepted understanding about stores of enthusiasm and raw hope,”
of light-years—is nothing less than how structures form in the universe. they write. “To perform what look
awesome. As astronomer Carl Sagan Dark matter is invisible stuff that, like miracles, humans need big and
once said: “A religion that stressed according to the theory, fills most inspiring ideas.”
the magnificence of the universe as of the cosmos and exerts a gravita- Abrams and Primack assert that
revealed by modern science might be tional pull on the matter we do see. their work can give rise to a new spiri-
able to draw forth reserves of rever- In 1988, Primack ck was made a Fellow tuality. According to their definition,
ence and awe hardly tapped by tradi- of the American
erican Physical Society and to be spiritual
u means experiencing
tional faiths. Sooner or later, such a has recently
ece served
rv on a National our connection
c c to
o the cosmos through
religion will emerge.” Academy
cad of Science
nc committee tee to scientific understanding.
n Yet the sheer
But for such a religion to bind defi
d ne the next phase se of research
re that awe at the miracle
m of existence that
itself to the human heart, it has to tell NASA should undertake.erta Abrams is a these two committed
c materialists tap
us how to relate to this overwhelming g philosopher, historian
his of science, law- into
to and convey
nvey breaks
con brea the boundaries
picture that science shows us. Where ere yer, policyy analyst,
a and songwriter.
o of science and
a leads us beyond.
beyond While
do we fit in? Are we merely passive ive She hasas consulted globallyy on on how they would never use the word “God” God”
witnesses to the unfolding drama m of nations
tio can make intelligent gent policy
p themselves, s the majesty of their vision n
the distant stars? Most materialist
r decisions
de in areas where
he scientifi
n c brings us inn touch with the kind of
scientists demur at this point,nt, believ-
in be research is crucial al but controversial.
er wonder thata humans throughout
th his-
is
ing, as Sagan did, that although
th the
he But it is her interest
nte in the boundary ar y tory have always associated ed with
wi h the
t
universe can be central to t us, we are between myth yt and science that hass timeless realm
e of the transcendent.
dent
not central to it. led to such
ch a fruitful partnership
rssh with h
That’s why we were re more than a Primack.
mack For the last decade, ca the two
little intrigued when Joel
J Primack and a have co-taught
co taug t a popular la course at
Nancy Ellen Abrams’ s tour de force e of the University
U off California
C lif at Santa
contemporary cosmology,
m The Viewew
t Universe, landed
from the Center of the a
in our office some e time ago. These
es
authors are saying n that human beings
b
actually are central
r to the cosmos—
m
64 What Is Enlightenment?
ht nmen w
www.wie.org
w
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A NEW THEORY OF THE COSMOS had been overestimated; it turns out that they are about twelve
billion years old, not sixteen billion years as we had thought.
WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT: In your work, you explain that, for the And in 1997 and 1998, two independent teams unexpectedly
first time in history, we are developing a picture of the universe that discovered that the universe has been expanding faster and
might actually be true. What are we learning about the cosmos? faster for about the last five billion years. This led us to theorize
that there must be something we cannot see that is making the
NANCY ELLEN ABRAMS: Let me fi rst step back a little to say universe expand so quickly. We call this “dark energy,” which
what we’re trying to do. Every culture we know of has always is a property of space itself, a repulsion of space by space that
assumed that they’re at the center of the universe. What does speeds up the expansion of the universe. We have inferred from
that mean? It means they understood something very deep this and lots of other evidence that the universe is composed
about themselves, but they never understood anything very mostly of invisible stuff: dark energy and dark matter.
deep about the universe. They just looked out, saw the stars,
and interpreted them in accordance with what worked for their
culture. They didn’t have any knowledge of what was beyond
the visible stars. They put themselves at the center of the uni-
verse because that’s what works for human beings. In every
The universe is more vast,
culture, this is the basis for understanding how reality is put explosively creative, eerily
together, how we fit in.
Now for the last four hundred years, since the time of beautiful, and mysterious than
Newton and Galileo, people have not been able to do that. In the
Newtonian view, Earth is just a random planet of a random star
anyone could ever have imagined.
in a place that is nothing special. So we couldn’t see ourselves as
central to the universe anymore. Though we still have religions
that go back to much earlier pictures of the universe, they have WIE: If dark matter is invisible, how do we know that most of the
been, to a great extent, in conflict with Newtonian science. universe is made of it?
For several centuries, we’ve had this conflict between what
science has told us about our place in the universe and the need PRIMACK: People realized as early as the 1930s that the visible
of human beings to explain our world in a way that makes us matter could not possibly be all there is. The galaxies rotate
central and, therefore, makes us matter. much too fast to be held together by the gravitational attraction
of the matter that we are able to see. Many discoveries, by Fritz
JOEL PRIMACK: But now we’re beginning to have a theory that Zwicky, Vera Rubin, Mort Roberts, and others, have convinced
makes sense of what science has observed about the cosmos, us that most of the matter in galaxies and clusters of galaxies
so we can ask the question that people are really interested is invisible. That’s the stuff we call dark matter.
in: What does this all mean for us? I’ve been working on dark matter for quite some time. I’m
a coauthor of the basic paper, published in 1984, that pro-
WIE: What is this new theory? How did it come about? posed the Cold Dark Matter theory. We had very little data
to support it until the 1990s. Now as the data comes in, the
PRIMACK: Cosmology was for centuries the laughingstock of detailed predictions of the Cold Dark Matter theory are being
science. It was the field in which the ratio of fact to theory was confi rmed again and again. There’s no data that’s inconsis-
practically zero. There were lots and lots of theories and hardly tent with this theory on the large scale of the universe.* All
any information that would enable us to validate those theories. the data confi rm what the theory predicted about things like
This has been true throughout almost all of the twentieth cen- the big bang radiation, the distribution of galaxies, galaxy for-
tury, up until the mid-1990s. Then a huge amount of new data mation, and so on. The predictions of the theory were usually
started to come in through our wonderful new instruments— made well in advance of observation, and the observations as
not just the famous Hubble Space Telescope but, for example, they’re coming in keep confi rming the predictions in tremen-
the Hipparcos satellite. It isn’t as well known, but it allowed us dous detail.
to reliably age date the oldest stars. As the data came in, we real-
ized that many of our assumptions had been wrong. For one *Not all cosmologists would agree with Primack’s statement. For a variety
thing, the distance of the oldest stars and therefore their age of views on dark matter and dark energy, see page 80.
May–July 2008 65
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This is the first time that cosmology has been in this kind slightly denser become galaxies—or clusters of galaxies on a
of situation. It’s normal for a fairly advanced science, where it bigger scale. Those regions that start out slightly less dense
can make predictions and the predictions usually come true. than average become voids, regions where the universe doesn’t
But in cosmology this is absolutely revolutionary. Every few seem to have any galaxies.
months we get major new observations, and these observa- Dark energy is causing the expansion to go faster and
tions keep confirming the predictions. This is what gives us faster on a large scale. And dark matter is preventing galax-
scientists confidence that we just might be on the right track. ies from expanding. It’s protecting the galaxies against the
tremendously destructive force of the dark energy that pulls
WIE: What is dark matter? And how does it work? things apart. That’s why I like to say that dark matter is our
friend. Dark matter keeps our galaxy and all the other galax-
PRIMACK: First of all, there’s nothing very mysterious about ies together.
how dark matter works—it works just like ordinary gravity.
The mysterious thing is that most of the mass in the uni- WIE: Is there a correlation between what you’re calling dark energy
verse is this invisible stuff. Dark matter is our friend. Dark and the original creative impulse that initiated the big bang?
matter starts in the very early universe with very slight dif-
ferences in density from one spot to another spot. They’re so PRIMACK: We think so. But that’s one of the big mysteries,
slight that they’re like the difference between the surface of because we don’t really know what dark energy is. We are
a soccer ball and a bacterium on that soccer ball. It’s a very, pretty sure that in the very earliest stages of the big bang, the
very slight difference. We think that those differences were universe was expanding extremely rapidly—this is cosmic
inflation, which I mentioned earlier. It’s not like ordinary
expansion but is an exponential expansion where in a given
amount of time the size of a given region doubles, and then,
Dark matter is our friend. It’s in the same amount of time, it doubles over and over. Now the
universe is starting to do this again under the influence of
what holds all of the galaxies dark energy. So we think that there may very well be a connec-
tion between the tremendously strong dark energy that may
in the universe together. have been driving cosmic inflation at the very beginning of
the universe and the dark energy that’s operating today.
caused by phenomena that occurred on a quantum scale in WIE: So while the dark energy is causing the universe to expand,
the very earliest stages of the big bang, the period that we call the dark matter pulls the star dust in the universe together to create
“cosmic inflation.” the stars and the galaxies. Is that right?
But anyway, gravity has the effect that it tremendously
amplifies small differences in density. A region that’s slightly PRIMACK: That’s right. The dark matter lumps are holding
denser than its surroundings expands more slowly. A region everything together. The special thing about ordinary atoms,
that’s slightly less dense than its surroundings expands as opposed to dark matter, is that when they bang into each
slightly faster. While the dark matter in those regions that are other, which naturally happens once in a while, they radiate
a little denser than average does expand with the expansion of away some of their energy and thus fall into the center of a
the universe, it happens more slowly so that it eventually gets dark matter lump. The very first stars were created this way
significantly denser than its surroundings. And the part that out of hydrogen and helium, which came from the big bang.
becomes denser than its surroundings collapses a little bit Clouds of atoms fall together, get very dense, and thus become
and becomes a lump of dark matter that stops expanding. The stars. At the end of their lives, a tiny fraction of their mass
universe continues to expand around it, but that dark matter becomes star dust—particles of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen,
lump stops. Within that region, ordinary matter can fall to and other heavier elements. Then in the next generation, the
the center of the dark matter. As it falls in, it can rotate faster heavier elements can form into planets that circle the stars.
and faster, like an ice skater pulling in her arms. Physicists We actually see this process going on now. Thousands of
call this “conservation of angular momentum.” It makes the planetary systems are actually forming. We can see this with
galaxies rotate. That’s how we get these beautiful spiral galax- our space telescopes. So we’re quite sure that this is in fact
ies that are obviously rotating. Since the universe has been what happens. This is probably how our own planetary sys-
expanding for billions of years, those regions that start out tem formed around a late-generation star. This only happens
06_View2.indd 66 3/28/08 8:28:07 PM

300 million light-years
Millennium Run, Volker Springel, et al. Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics, 2004
3 billion light-years
The Invisible
Texture of the
Universe
This extraordinary image shows
the projected distribution of dark
matter in a 3-billion-light-year
cross-section of the universe. Each
level of magnification gives us a
closer look at the “cosmic web” of
dark matter filaments (blue), which
string together billions of small and This cosmic cluster is made up of more than a thousand galaxies,
large galaxy clusters (yellow). each of which contains hundreds of millions of stars.
May–July 2008 67
!"#$%&'()%*++,,,"- ./01/!2,,,(3(!34",56
in the middle of giant dark matter halos, which are spherical PRIMACK: Let me give you a brief list. First, we’re made of the
blobs of dark matter. When you think about a galaxy, you rarest stuff in the universe. Atoms only make up less than
see these beautiful spirals, but you should imagine that five percent of the stuff of the universe. Dark matter has at
on a scale ten times bigger than the galaxies that we see, least five times more mass than all the ordinary matter that we
there are these giant dark matter lumps that are actually know. The rest is dark energy. At least seventy percent of the
holding the galaxies together against the destructive force mass-energy of the universe is this dark energy stuff, which
of the dark energy that’s pulling things apart on bigger is really mysterious.
scale. Nancy has a beautiful way of describing this with a So it turns out that atoms are relatively rare. And almost
nautical analogy. all of the mass of atoms consists of hydrogen and helium. All
the heavy elements—carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus,
ABRAMS: Sometimes in my talks I explain it in this way because sulfur, iron, and all the way up to uranium—these are made
it brings it all a little closer to home: Imagine that the entire in stars and in supernovae, when stars explode at the end of
their lives. As I said before, these heavier elements are spewed
out as star dust.
We are made of these heavy elements. People like to call it
All of the heavier elements CHON, which stands for carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitro-
gen—the most common elements in living organisms. Of
represent only one-hundredth course, you can’t make living creatures without a fair amount
of the other heavier elements too. All of those were made in
of one percent of what exists. stars and have been collected together into very special places,
like our planet Earth. That’s what we are made of. All of the
We’re made of the rarest stuff heavier elements put together represent only one-hundredth
in the universe. of one percent of what’s in the universe. We’re the rarest stuff
in the universe.
universe is an ocean. The ocean is dark energy, which fills the ABRAMS: To show how important our place is in the universe,
entire universe. On that ocean, there sail billions of ghostly we have created what we call the Cosmic Density Pyramid.
ships made of dark matter. At the tops of the tallest masts of It’s based on the pyramid on the back of the dollar bill. The
only the largest ships are tiny little beacons of light. Those bea- base of it is thirteen rows of bricks, and then there’s a float-
cons of light are what we see when we look out at the stars and ing capstone with an eye in the middle of it. Everyone knows
galaxies in the universe. We can’t see the ships and we can’t see this symbol. It was put on the back of the dollar bill to rep-
the ocean. But we know they’re there through theory, through resent something completely different—the thirteen original
Joel’s theory specifically, the theory of cold dark matter. colonies with the Eye of Providence looking favorably on this
Because we have this theory and this new picture of the venture of a new country. But the pyramid was an even older
universe, we can know that those invisible things are there and symbol when the U.S. government started using it. We have
that those little bits of light are not just hanging there. They are taken this symbol and reinterpreted it. The age of the symbol
the beacons on the ships, which represent the galaxies that we reflects the fact that symbols like this really work for human
actually see. beings. People like them; they resonate with them. But our
interpretation makes them realistic and accurate.
AT THE CENTER OF THE COSMOS We’ve reinterpreted the pyramid to represent all of the vis-
ible matter in the universe. The heavy base of the pyramid is
WIE: In this new scientific picture that you are presenting—what just hydrogen and helium, which is what the stars are made
you sometimes call the Double Dark theory, which includes dark of. That’s almost all the atoms in the universe. Even though
energy and dark matter—you say that we are cosmically central they’re very, very light, they still weigh far more than all the star
and that we’re living at a pivotal time. This cosmic centrality is what dust, which is what that tiny floating capstone is made of. The
you mean by “the view from the center of the universe.” Can you eye in the capstone represents intelligent life—the portion of
explain some of the key ways that we human beings are central to the star dust that is able to see this whole thing, reflect on it, to
the cosmos? find some meaning in it. That eye is far out of proportion to the
!"#$%&'()%*++,,,"- ./(-/!-,,,0(10(1(2,34
All Other Visible Matter 0.01%
Hydrogen & Helium 0.5%
Invisible Atoms 4%
Cold Dark Matter 25%
Dark Energy 70% “Imagine that the entire

universe is an ocean of dark
energy. On that ocean, there
sail billions of ghostly ships
made of dark matter . . .”
Nancy Ellen Abrams
May–July 2008 69
06_View2.indd 69 3/28/08 6:15:14 PM

amount of star dust that exists. If we did represent intelligent means is that if there’s a large thinking organism, it’s going to
life in scale with everything else, it would be almost invisible, a be basically a community of smaller minds. The thinking will
little tiny point at the top. But that eye is really the most impor- be done by the smaller minds. The speed of communication—
tant part of the pyramid. It’s us. ultimately the speed of light, which is the fastest that data can
Then we’ve expanded this picture from the back of the dol- be transmitted—limits the size to about that of a human.
lar bill to be much, much bigger. Below ground, there’s an To summarize, we’re made of the rarest stuff in the uni-
immense hidden dark pyramid, which represents the invisible verse. We’re on the midsize scale where things are really inter-
atoms, dark matter, and dark energy. esting. We’re a lot smaller than galaxies and the universe.
So even though we are tiny, tiny, tiny—we’re up at the very We’re a lot bigger than the really small size scale of atoms and
topmost point of the pyramid—we are supported by everything the interiors of atoms.
below us. We could not exist without the huge amount of dark
matter that’s below the surface or without the dark energy that ABRAMS: We decided to give a name to this middle range of
is responsible for keeping this whole universe growing. size scales that humans are a part of. We chose the name
Midgard. We wanted to give it a name because it is so special.
It’s the range of size scales that we have intuitive understand-
ing of—from about the size of an ant up to about the size of
Human beings are central the sun. For most people, that range is reality, even though it
actually is not reality; it’s only a tiny patch of it. We picked the
to the cosmos—and the name Midgard because in Norse mythology it is the realm of
civilization and stability—the human world in the middle of
latest research in science the world sea. Off to one side is the realm of the giants, and off
to the other is the realm of the gods.
can show us how. Now this is, of course, metaphorical. Nobody should ever
imagine that we’re trying to take this literally, but metaphori-
cally, it’s really quite a good description of the size scales in the
PRIMACK: We’re also in the middle of all possible size scales. universe. Outside this midrange of size scales, there really is
The human size scale is almost exactly in the middle between the land of the giants—giants of galaxies and superclusters of
the smallest possible size, something physicists call a Planck galaxies on the cosmic horizon. These are things that we can
length, and the entire visible universe, the largest thing we really only think about; we can’t ever experience them directly.
can see. This must be true of all intelligent life. The same is true in the small realm. We are totally dependent
on the very small realm of individual living cells and the much
WIE: Why do you say that? smaller realm of atomic particles and so forth. Those were here
first. They are what we are made of. In that sense they are, as
PRIMACK: Well, all atoms are about the same size, and you we like to call them in our book, the “wee gods.” We really are
need to have an awful lot of atoms to have the complexity of sandwiched in between these two other realms.
the human mind, which is the most complicated thing we’ve For most of human history, no one knew about these two
ever discovered in the universe. You can’t have that kind of realms. They only knew about Midgard. It’s only with the advent
complexity if you’re as small as, let’s say, an ant. You have to be of great scientific instruments and theories, like quantum the-
pretty big; you have to have a lot of atoms. ory, that we have actually been able to say, “This is really what
You might think that bigger is better—that if humans are the universe is like on these other size scales.” This has only
smart, then a creature the size of a mountain would be even happened in the last century. We now know about the realm of
smarter. But large creatures like dinosaurs or whales are so big the wee gods and the realm of the giants. We know about this
that there’s a noticeable delay from when information is sent through science.
out from their brains and when it gets to their tails. It’s cru-
cial that information be transmitted quickly. You can’t think PRIMACK: Let me continue with the ways humans are central
faster than information can be transmitted. The way thinking by jumping to time. It turns out that we live at the midpoint of
is done, both in brains and also in supercomputers, is that the cosmic time. We live very close to the time when the universe
really intense processing is done in small regions where the is switching over from slowing down its expansion to speeding
data can be transferred back and forth very rapidly. If you want up its expansion. This is the best time for observation of the
to build a big supercomputer, you hook together a lot of chips. distant universe. As the universe’s expansion speeds up, the
But all the hard work is being done in the chips. What that distant galaxies are disappearing from our sight. We scientists
!"#$%&'()%*++,,,-! ./01/!2,,,(3(03(4,56
A spherical representation of cosmic time
This diagram shows us how, from the perspective of time, we’re at the
center of the universe. As Abrams reminds us, “When we look up at
the night sky, we are not just looking out into space—we’re looking
back in time.” The image of a distant galaxy that we see through a
telescope is actually the light that this cosmic form emitted billions of
years ago. In the figure, each concentric sphere, moving outward from
today, represents an earlier epoch in the evolution of the universe.
The farther away from us a sphere is, the farther back in time are the
galaxies and other objects that we observe in that sphere, until we
reach the outermost layer, which represents the background radiation
generated by the big bang itself.
1. YOU ARE HERE! (Today)
2. Our Sun Forms (4.5 Billion years ago)
3. Big Galaxies Form
4. Bright Galaxies Form
6. Cosmic Background radiation

(400,000 years after the big bang)
7. Cosmic Horizon (big bang)
like to say that this is the best possible time to observe the dis- about right away, because we’re talking about many hundreds
tant universe, so fund us quick! of millions of years in the future. But this shows that we’re in
Actually, of course, this will remain true for millions of the middle of the best period of our planet.
years, but it’s something that we’re just beginning to appreci- We’re also at the end of the exponential expansion of humans
ate. We live at the midpoint of our solar system’s life. It began on Earth. During the last century, humanity increased its num-
about four and a half billion years ago; it will end in five or six bers by a factor of four. The size of the human population dou-
billion years when the sun turns into a red giant star and then bled not once, but twice, over the last hundred years, which is
ultimately a white dwarf. the first time in the history of humanity that ever happened. It
We’re also living in the middle of the best time for Earth. Earth can never happen again. In fact, there are strong doubts that
only got an oxygen-rich atmosphere about half a billion years ago— Earth could handle a doubling of the current human popula-
thanks to microorganisms. The sun is steadily heating up, which tion. So we’ve reached the end of this rapid increase of our pop-
is what midsize stars like the sun always do as they age. In about ulation—and we’re obviously reaching the end of the even more
half a billion years, the sun will become so hot that, quite apart rapid increase of our impact on the planet.
from global warming due to greenhouse gasses, it will evaporate Thus, we’re living at a very special moment from all of
all the oceans, and Earth will lose its water. The hydrogen will be these different perspectives: from cosmic to the solar system
separated from the oxygen at the top of the atmosphere, the hydro- to Earth to human. This brings us to a total of six different
gen will be lost, and Earth will become a dune planet. ways that we’re in a central position in the universe, starting
Incidentally, this fate could be averted, or at least postponed, with being made of the rarest stuff, plus the fact that we’re in
if our distant descendants figure out how to move Earth farther the middle of all size scales, and then the four different ways
away from the sun. My astronomical colleagues just figured out that we’re living in a central moment in time.
how to do this in principle. It involves reorienting the orbits of Let me just mention one more: We’re at the center of the
some large comets. This isn’t something that we need to worry observable universe. Now that’s nothing special, because any
May–July 2008 71
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observer is at the center of their observable universe. We all see a tion to tie our need to give a meaning to the universe to what
spherical universe around us, and in that sense, the old medieval we actually know about the universe. This is what’s really so
cosmology with Earth at the center of a set of crystalline spheres extraordinary about this point in time for us.
was right. But the way we understand this now is that we’re at Astonishingly, in this new picture, in all the ways Joel
the center of spheres of time. We don’t just look out in space; we mentioned, we actually are central. We’re just not central in
look back in time. Looking out, we see the galaxies as they were the way people assumed, which was a geographic centrality.
longer and longer ago. The same would likely be true of other That is obviously not true. There is no geographic center to
intelligent creatures in other places in the universe—they would an expanding universe. But nevertheless, we’re central in all
see themselves at the center of the observable universe too. But these really interesting, subtle, and very meaningful ways that,
we’re realizing these things for the first time. of course, no one could even conceptualize before we had mod-
ern cosmology.
WIE: In your book, you call this perspective the “cosmic spheres of So we’re in an extraordinary position from the point of view
time.” Nancy, you’ve said that we are in a special place in the uni- of human meaning because we’re now at a place where we can
verse in relation to these cosmic spheres of time. Our special place satisfy this deep need to understand ourselves as central to the
arises from the relationship between space, time, light, and con- universe. We can make it scientifically rigorous and accurate
sciousness. You also note that without consciousness, there is no at the same time. That’s what has never been possible before.
visible universe. Could you say more about what you meant by this That’s what we really need to develop now.
and how it relates to our centrality? It’s not obvious how to do this. We’ve given an interpre-
tation in our book of one way to look at it, but this is really
ABRAMS: The visible universe is what we see. It’s what we’re going to require the whole culture—artists and writers and
conscious of. There’s something out there, and we humans so forth—to collaborate with it. We need to interpret this new
have to interpret what it is. Now that we actually have a serious picture of the universe in ways that are meaningful to us, that
scientific theory and a lot of data to support it, we’re in a posi- inspire us, and that really light our fire.
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CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE COSMOS
The experiment of intelligent life is giving the universe
WIE: As you have been explaining, the cold dark matter theory tells its own way of looking at itself. All of us together—we and
us that most of the universe is invisible. You’ve said that without any intelligent aliens that might be out there—we are the con-
consciousness, we couldn’t see anything. What is the role of consciousness of the universe. We are the way the universe reflects
sciousness in the universe? on itself, and without us, the universe is utterly meaningless
and will forever be meaningless. A beautiful planet could be
ABRAMS: The first thing that I think people don’t realize is here with animals and plants, but the whole thing would be
that everything we say about the universe is really about our meaningless. Those environmentalists who imagine this
understanding of the universe. We don’t really have any way of planet from their point of view as a pristine beautiful Eden are
knowing anything out there, except through our own minds. giving the planet meaning. Without us, no one’s going to be
imagining that.
PRIMACK: All we see is light. We make the interpretation that
there are stars out there rather than tiny holes in the dome of PRIMACK: On the other hand, we also have the ability to think
the sky through which the light of heaven shines. The idea through the implications of our actions. One of the things that
that those are distant stars was a discovery, as was the realiza- we learn from cosmology is the enormous time scale before us
tion that those stars themselves have a life and a death and and into the future. We are the product of 13.7 billion years of
that the really distant things are galaxies and quasars. All of
these are discoveries. They’re not the least bit obvious. We
basically construct the universe as we discover more things to
interpret. Now we have the ability with our satellites above the
atmosphere to see parts of the spectrum of radiation that could We are the way the universe
never be seen by our senses: gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet,
infrared, and even radio waves.
reflects on itself. Without
We depend on a combination of fancy technology and theo-
retical interpretation to make sense of this universe. If that
us, the universe is utterly
isn’t human consciousness, I don’t know what is. meaningless.
ABRAMS: Consciousness is what makes all this real for us.
Everything that we are doing is for us. Everything we say about cosmic evolution. Our planet has billions of years to go before
the universe, even the word “universe,” is a human construct. the solar system is destroyed by the sun turning into a red
We couldn’t possibly know anything without using our own giant star and then a white dwarf. There will be many thou-
abilities to metaphorically create meaning. sands of billions of years of evolution in the future of the galax-
ies. In fact, our own galaxy will get brighter and brighter for
WIE: I believe you have said that human beings are the perfect size approximately six trillion years. The future before us and our
in the cosmos. Does this relate to our capacity for consciousness? descendants, if we’re smart enough to have any, is immense.
What we do in this brief period at the end of the human infla-
ABRAMS: I don’t know that we said we’re perfect—but we are tionary expansion on Earth can make a tremendous difference
the right size to have complex thoughts. Whether you consider in the long run. We’ve just begun to appreciate this, but it’s
that perfect or not is really a matter of taste. There are actu- not too late to have the results come out in good ways rather
ally a lot of people out there today, environmentalists particu- than bad.
larly, who think that Earth would be better off without human
beings. The animals would survive, and the planet would be WIE: So this is another way that we are living at a pivotal time on
greener. All of the bad things that we’re doing wouldn’t be this planet?
happening. I personally think that that’s a terrible misunder-
standing of our entire species and what our potential is. We’re ABRAMS: We’re living at a pivotal time only if you understand
not perfect by a long shot, and we make terrible mistakes. But how big time actually is. We’re always living at a pivotal time
we are able to do something that nothing out there that we from some sort of political point of view: Is it going to be the
have ever encountered anywhere in the whole universe can do. Democrats or Republicans? Is the Iraq War going to end or is
We may be the first. It may just be that Earth is the planet that it going to go on another ten years? Those are pivotal events on
is going to have to support this astonishing experiment, for some size scale. But the size scale we’re talking about is far,
better or for worse. far larger. In the very distant future, the Milky Way is going
May–July 2008 73
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to merge with the Andromeda galaxy. In fact, our local group In that case, future number one is completely wiped off the
of thirty-some galaxies is going to come together and merge. possibility charts. This is what we mean by a pivotal moment,
During that period of time, the rest of the universe is going because we, right now, are the people who are going to be deter-
to be expanding so fast that we are hardly going to be able to mining which of those two immensely different futures could
see any other galaxies at all. Thus in the very distant future, actually come about. Unless you can see cosmic time, unless
our visible universe may really consist of only one huge galaxy, you can see a really long time into the future and realize how
which Joel and I like to call “Milky Andromeda.” important our existence may be, you can’t possibly appreciate
If the human race has gone on to solve these little short- future number one as a possibility.
term problems that we are facing now, and has continued to
evolve in order to colonize the Milky Way, then we will, in WIE: I’ve heard you say very eloquently that our time seems ordi-
effect, have colonized the entire visible universe. That’s future nary to us but it’s going to be mythic to future generations if we act
number one. responsibly.
Now let’s assume, because we don’t know about them,
that there aren’t any intelligent aliens. Let’s assume that the ABRAMS: Either way it’s going to be mythic. Either way.
fate of the universe is up to us. So future number two is that
the Republican Party continues to debate whether Jesus and PRIMACK: Our descendants will never forgive us if we mess
the devil were brothers or not and people are completely dis- up Earth.
tracted from seeing what’s happening as Earth warms up. We
don’t cut back on our use of resources because of greed and ABRAMS: If we don’t save it—because we’re already messing
short-term views. We have huge wars, plagues, and so forth, it up. We have a huge responsibility. We’re acting as though
and the human race is reduced again to where it was thou- Earth is just here—as if we found it and it belongs to us. But
sands of years ago. We have to start all over again, or maybe we are here because of billions of years of other animals fight-
we are totally wiped out. ing and struggling so that their children could grow up and
New Book!
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reproduce. All of life is a struggle. We are benefiting from the cupied with these trivial differences between human beings
struggles of our ancestors going all the way back to that first and is not seeing that, as human beings, we have this immense
cell. We were not handed this Earth. That’s why some of these potential. But we really need to see ourselves as one.
religious myths are so terribly destructive. “Oh, God handed it Another thing that we say in the book is that there is an “us
to us and said to us, ‘Okay, it’s up to you now, take care of it.’” versus them,” but it’s not my civilization versus your civilization
No, it wasn’t handed to us. We have arisen out of it. We’re part or my race versus your race. Us versus them is intelligent life ver-
of this enormous flow, and we have every obligation to pass it sus the laws of physics. That’s what we really have to deal with.
on to our children and to our very, very distant descendants
who can take over the whole galaxy. WIE: What do you mean by that?
A COSMOCENTRIC VIEW ON BEING HUMAN ABRAMS: It’s not between us; it’s between all of us humans
and nature. That’s what we really have to negotiate with; that’s
WIE: Part of what you’re alluding to is a point that you make in what we really have to take seriously. We need to identify our-
your book about how our moral and ethical frameworks are not selves with a much larger group. We need to identify ourselves
appropriate to the scale of time and the consequences that we’re with intelligent life and not with some tiny little ethnic group.
actually working within. As long as we identify ourselves with tiny little ethnic groups,
we cannot see how precious this incredible experiment is on
ABRAMS: That’s right. We have to realize that all human beings planet Earth. All we see are the little differences. When you
are essentially the same, if you look at it from a cosmic point of appreciate your place in the real universe, these little things
view. We are completely preoccupied today with very, very triv- really subside in importance, and we can find the unifying ele-
ial differences. The Shiites versus the Sunnis. The Mormons ments that could really save our planet.
versus the Evangelicals. Blacks versus whites. These are silly,
trivial differences. Yet our entire culture is completely preoc- WIE: It gives a lot of dignity to being human.
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www.consciouspursuits.com.
May–July 2008 75
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ABRAMS: Yes, we have to see the dignity in it. All of us humans itself is so much grander than anyone imagined. If we even
are bunched up on one planet, so we look extremely common attempt to feel that we’re part of it, that is a spiritual action.
to ourselves. Humans are incredibly precious. There are so
few intelligent beings in this immense universe. Just because WIE: Because the enormity of it utterly shatters any notion of self
we happen to be bunched up on Earth, doesn’t make us any that would merely be personal, ethnic, or cultural?
less precious.
ABRAMS: I don’t think it shatters it. I think it greatly expands
WIE: When you say that it’s between human beings and nature, it. We can now realize that we are cosmic beings in a very
are you saying that human beings are separate from nature? definable sense. We have a place in this cosmos, and we could
have a huge effect on the cosmos, if we play our cards right.
ABRAMS: No, we’re talking about human beings realizing
that we have to live in harmony with nature. We have to pay WIE: How do we make meaning from this new view of the cosmos?
attention to nature. We have to learn to understand her ways. As you say in your book, we have the choice to find meaning in our
That’s science. extraordinary place in the cosmos or to continue with the modern-
ist, Newtonian, existential view that we’re insignificant specks in
WIE: Earlier you spoke about Midgard, the midsize realm of cre- the middle of this vast, meaningless universe.
PRIMACK: We give a number of examples in our book of apply-

ing ideas from modern physics and cosmology to human
You never find meaning affairs. Take the concept of emergence. We love to teach our
students what we call “phase transitions.” That’s what hap-
without looking at the big pens when, for example, ice melts and turns into water or
water evaporates and turns into water vapor. These are com-
picture. And cosmology is plete changes of basic physical phenomena, and they simply
the biggest picture we have. don’t make any sense on the scale of an individual atom or
molecule. You can’t talk about a molecule of water being fro-
zen, liquid, or vapor. It only makes sense when you talk about
large numbers of molecules interacting with one another.
ation that is between the infinitely small and the unimaginably
large. In a talk that you gave to NASA, you said that the only way ABRAMS: There is a very simple way of putting this in human
we can know these larger cosmic realms and the subatomic realms terms. Something similar to a “phase transition” happens
is through science, and the only way we can experience them is when human beings are in groups. For instance, individuals
spiritually. What do you mean when you say that we have the who may be very nice on their own, when they are with too
capacity to experience these realms spiritually? many other people who all think one way, can become fanat-
ics. There’s this strange thing called “group think” that hap-
ABRAMS: Basically, what we’re saying is that you cannot experi- pens to us, and there are some evolutionary explanations for
ence these things directly. You can learn about them and know why this happens. People in these groups are extremely differ-
about them intellectually. Scientists do this. We are trying to ent than they would be as individuals.
find what our place is in this universe—how do we understand
our place in the expanding, double dark universe? Throughout PRIMACK: Of course, an example of emergence that we humans
all of history, people have needed to experience their place in are particularly interested in is the phenomenon of human
the universe because it gave them grounding, made them feel consciousness. It’s a deep mystery how this wet organ in our
that their lives were real and that they mattered. It was the basis skulls, our brain, somehow creates the experience of being
of their various religions. We still are the same kind of peo- conscious beings. This is a deep question of neuropsychology
ple. We really do need meaning. And we need meaning that that great progress is being made on, but it’s such a tough
is grounded in the best picture of reality available to us in our question that it’s going to take a lot of further understanding
time. Now, for the first time, we have a new picture of reality, before we get there. Clearly, something like emergence must
and our meaning has to be grounded in that. be happening. Consciousness is not just individual interac-
We can experience the entire universe spiritually if we real- tions between neurons or the individual things that happen
ize that, by Joel’s and my definition, what spiritual means is in neurons. It’s some kind of very complicated collective phe-
experiencing our connection to the cosmos. That is all it means; nomenon that happens through the interaction of billions
it has nothing to do with anything supernatural. The universe of neurons, just as phase transition describes what happens
!"#$%&'()%*++,,,-" ./01/!2,,,(3(0344,56
through the interaction of billions of atoms or molecules. need science because we aren’t going to succeed without it.
We’re trying to illustrate the idea that physics and cosmol- The huge challenge is to pull those two things together so that
ogy can be an important new source of metaphors. Once you we have meaning and it is accurate.
have the idea of metaphorical thinking, you can apply that
to very different realms, including human experience and WIE: In the last chapter of your book, you write: “If we take on the
human interaction. That’s a way that we can find meaning. cosmic responsibility, we get the cosmic opportunity—that rarest
Basically, the bottom line is that you never find meaning of opportunities for the kind of transcendent cultural leap possible
without looking at the big picture. You can’t understand what only at the dawn of a new picture of the universe.”
a little piece of a picture means until you see the big picture; Could you say some final words on that?
you see how the little piece fits in. Cosmology is the biggest
picture we have. It can help us find meaning by letting us see PRIMACK: There have been only a few real changes to our cos-
ourselves as part of a grand story. mic picture. First, the flat Earth was the standard picture of
the ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and the Old Testament
ABRAMS: I’d like to say one more thing about the question Hebrews. This changed to the picture of a spherical Earth in
of meaning. Every culture has had some kind of meaning- the middle of a spherical universe. That’s the Greek view,
ful story, a story that meant something for them. But what is which was standard throughout the Middle Ages. Then there
was the transformation from that to the Newtonian picture,
which led to this curious situation where, for the last three
or four hundred years, most people in the West never even
Far too many people are thought about the universe without a certain discomfort.
Now we have the transition to the double dark universe
looking for meaning in that’s based on dark matter and dark energy, where quantum
mechanics and relativity are also important. This is a strik-
stories that were useful to ingly different picture from any of the earlier ones. Evolution
is also key. The universe changes fundamentally in time and
their ancestors, but which on different size scales. These are characteristic features of
can’t create a coherent our latest picture of the universe. Now that we’re beginning to
understand how this picture fits together, this challenges us to
picture of reality today. reconceptualize everything. That’s a fantastic opportunity for
our particular moment in time, and people have not had such
an opportunity for many centuries.
Part of the point of our book is to give people the back-
meaningful changes with the times and with changes in the ground to start thinking about it and creating new art and lit-
political and economic and social situations. Today we have erature, and so forth. We’ve attempted to show some of the
far too many people looking for meaning in stories that were ways that this can be done. If we’re successful, people will go
useful to their ancestors in earlier times, which cannot create far beyond what we propose.
a coherent picture of reality today. The big challenge today is
to find the kind of meaning that our ancestors may have found ABRAMS: The amazing thing is we have this opportunity right
in their stories in a way that is coherent with what we actually when the world is falling apart. There are a lot of people who
know now. are scared of these ideas. They’re scared partly because they
Science has to be the bottom line. We need to take the best feel they can’t understand the science. We have to understand
science of our day and build our meaning on that. Because how the universe works and make our spirituality as real as
what we’re looking for is not just meaning to make us feel possible. The whole idea of trying to spend your life under-
good so we can stay home. It’s meaning so that we can have an standing your spiritual connection to the universe but not hav-
accurate map of reality to save this planet. ing any interest in how the universe actually works seems to
We have to build on the best picture of our time and then me absolutely bizarre. We need to be coherent beings. That’s
give that adequate meaning so it motivates us and brings us how it’s going to matter.
together, so that when we do work together, we are working in
harmony with nature.
We have not changed as human beings. We need meaning Listen to the full interview at
wie.org/View
today just as much as we ever needed it. We also desperately
!"#$%&'()%*++,,,-. /0120!.,,,(3(1345,67
FEATURE
FEATURE
Liv i ng i n
the Da rk BY TOM HUSTON
!"#$%&'(%))*&+,+-.//0001! 23453!1000,62164!07(
5 LEADING PHYSICISTS EXPLORE THE
BIGGEST MYSTERY OF MODERN COSMOLOGY
Featuring: Neil deGrasse Tyson • Paul Davies • Janna Levin
Deno Kazanis • Bernard Haisch
Q: Most cosmologists believe that the vast causing the rest. Not only that, if you add up all the matter and
energy in the universe, it comes to just four percent of all that
majority of the universe’s mass—something drives cosmic expansion. So we’re clueless about that one, too,
on the order of ninety-six percent of all the with no idea about what occupies the remaining ninety-six per-
material of which the universe is made—is cent of the universe.
actually invisible, consisting of two mysteri- We call these invisible entities “dark matter” and “dark
energy.”
ous quantities they call “dark matter” and What are they? Maybe they’re exotic, never-before-seen
“dark energy.” The question is: What could forms of matter and energy. Or maybe they reveal a hidden flaw
they possibly be? in our understanding of how the universe works. But really, the
two terms are placeholders for our abject ignorance. We could
N
just as easily have labeled them “Bert” and “Ernie” or “Without-
eil de Grasse Tyson: Consider
a-Clue A” and “Without-a-Clue B.”
all we’ve learned about the
So we are left in a curious situation. What we know of the
size, age, and contents of the
universe, we know well. Yet a larger cosmic truth lies undis-
universe—from its fiery birth in the big
covered before us—a humbling, yet thrilling, prospect for the
bang through fourteen billion years of
scientist—driven not only by the search for answers but by the
expansion that has followed. Even better,
love of questions themselves.
consider the powerful laws of physics
we’ve discovered that account for it all. Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist, is director of New York City’s Hayden
Kind of makes you stand with pride for being human. But Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History and the author of
before you stand too tall, consider that, at the moment, we can The Sky Is Not the Limit (2000), Origins (2004), and Death by Black
Hole (2007).
account for only fifteen percent of all the gravity we’ve ever
measured in the universe. We’re simply clueless about what’s
Reprinted with permission from “The Cosmic Perspective”
©2008 Neil deGrasse Tyson, NOVA scienceNOW, WGBH Boston
May–July 2008 81
07_DarkMatter.2.indd 81 3/19/08 4:41:01 PM

LIVING IN THE DARK
P aul Davies: When it comes to this, he abandoned his cosmological repulsion term—which
dark matter, it’s been known for he’d put in purely by hand just to fix up his model of a static
quite a long time that there is a universe—and said it was his greatest mistake.
lot of invisible substance tugging on the But about ten years ago astronomers discovered that there
visible stuff in the universe. What you does indeed seem to be something like Einstein’s cosmologi-
see is not what you get. The stars move cal repulsion force at work in the universe, which got dubbed
in such a way that if there wasn’t a lot “dark energy.” In my view, it is none other than what Einstein
of invisible gravitational material, then galaxies like the Milky introduced in 1917. So his greatest mistake might actually turn
Way would unravel like an exploding flywheel. The question is, out to be one of his greatest triumphs.
what is this stuff? But it’s never been hard to think up possible
Paul Davies, a cosmologist, is director of BEYOND, a research institute at
objects or particles that it could be. Arizona State University dedicated to cutting-edge fields of science. His
People have tended to divide these possibilities into two many books include The Mind of God (1992) and Cosmic Jackpot (2007,
categories, which have been whimsically called “MACHOs” reprinted in paperback as The Goldilocks Enigma, 2008).
and “WIMPs.” MACHO stands for massive compact halo objects.
These could be anything from black holes to dim stars to
objects like asteroids and so on. The idea is that any galaxy that ❖❖❖
we see is embedded in a much larger, roughly spherical halo of
J
such nonluminous objects, and that a lot of a galaxy’s mass is anna Levin: It’s really hard to con-
distributed there. Yet people have looked for MACHOs, and they jecture what dark matter and dark
found things, but nowhere near enough of them to account for energy might be. I’ve worked on
the gravitational mass of dark matter. some crazy ideas; other people have
The other category, WIMP, stands for weakly interacting worked on
massive particles. Now, we know plenty of weakly interacting some crazy ideas.
particles, such as neutrinos, which interact so weakly with One of the things I’ve been interested
ordinary matter that billions of neutrinos from the sun, for in personally is whether or not the dark energy could come
example, are passing straight through you all the time without from extra spatial dimensions, dimensions that are so small
you noticing. Neutrinos are filling the whole universe, but they and curled up that we don’t notice them, where a kind of vibra-
just don’t have enough mass to account for dark matter. So the tion in those multidimensional spaces creates this energy
WIMP would mean a particle like a neutrino but massive. that’s felt everywhere in the universe. That could be respon-
There is some hope that one of these particles will be sible for the dark energy. And there’s been several other ideas
produced in a few months when the Large Hadron Collider at totally unrelated to that.
CERN, the European particle accelerator lab, gets switched on. Now with dark matter it would be nice if it connected to
For my money, I think that’s probably what we’re dealing with. dark energy in some way, and it wasn’t just a completely sepa-
We will find one or a collection of these WIMPs, and that will rate, random piece of information about the universe. It would
satisfactorily account for this dark matter. be nice if it were somehow a different side of the same coin as
WIE: So what do you think dark energy is? dark energy, perhaps related to vibrations in extra dimensions,
just like dark energy might be. But until we have more data and
DAVIES: Well, here I’m a little bit out of fashion with some more information, that’s really all we’re going to be doing—
cosmologists who love to say, “It’s a great mystery what exploring possibilities and comparing them to the few observa-
this dark energy is. It’s a crisis in physics.” We have a per- tions we do have.
fectly good explanation for what it is, and we’ve had it for
decades and decades. The original idea for what we now WIE: Some physicists are highly critical of dark matter and dark
call dark energy was dreamt up in 1917 by none other than energy, claiming they’re merely theoretical concepts that are so
Albert Einstein. In those days nobody knew that the universe inextricably tied to Einstein’s particular model of the universe that
was expanding, and Einstein assumed it was static. So he if that model were somehow disproved, they’d be disproved along
introduced what he called a cosmological repulsion term in with it. Would you agree with that?
his equations to counteract the force of gravity—to explain LEVIN: Well, I should state that these are new observations,
why, in a static universe, all the stars and galaxies can just and so it only seems to be the case that there is dark energy
hang out there in space when there is this universal force and dark matter. It is becoming very convincing, but these are
of attraction wanting to pull them together. But in 1930 we still early days. There are many cosmological observations that
learned that the universe isn’t static—it’s actually expand- seem much more absolute and concrete than these.
ing. The galaxies are flying apart. When Einstein learned So I would agree that there is another possibility, which is
07_DarkMatter.2.indd 82 3/19/08 3:56:28 PM

second graphic to come
“Mystics have tended to see the

universe as being composed of
different layers of matter, most of
which were said to be invisible
to our usual narrow vision. But in
mystical states of consciousness,
these other forms of matter would
become visible.”
—Deno Kazanis
that in terms of Einstein’s theory, it’s not that the whole para- ferent “planes” of matter, when I read about dark matter, I
digm is wrong, but that the theory might need to mutate into began to realize that it fit in pretty well with what the mystics
a slightly modified theory of gravity that’s a little bit different have been talking about. Mystics in all parts of the world
from his original one. As we look at vaster scales of the cosmos have tended to see the universe as actually being composed
or higher energy scales, it’s possible that an unexpected dis- of different layers of matter, different types of matter, most
tortion of gravity begins to appear, which we’re misinterpreting of which were said to be invisible to our usual narrow vision.
to be the existence of dark energy and dark matter, when all But in mystical states of consciousness, these other forms of
that it really is is a modification of gravity on large scales and matter would become visible to them.
high energies. And we cannot yet disentangle which one of Now when the mystics talk about the “subtle bodies” of
those things is right. man, such as the etheric, astral, mental, soul, and spirit bod-
ies, they describe how they interpenetrate each other and
Janna Levin, a theoretical cosmologist, is professor of physics and astronomy
at Barnard College of Columbia University. She is the author of How the interpenetrate with our visible body as well. A hundred years
Universe Got Its Spots (2002) and the historical novel, A Madman ago, interpenetration would have been something of a taboo,
Dreams of Turing Machines (2006). but thanks to quantum mechanics, we now know that matter
isn’t solid. Atoms aren’t solid things. Our ability to see, touch,
taste, smell, and hear the world is really only due to atoms’
❖❖❖ electric charge. And because objects on the atomic level inter-
act through electric forces, if there’s no such force present,
D eno Kazanis: When I first

heard about dark matter I was
impressed by the quantity of
it, making up most of the universe.
Although I never really took the mysti-
then objects can literally pass right through each other. The
reason we can hold an apple in our hand and it doesn’t fall
through is because the apple is made of charged atoms and
our hand is made of charged atoms, so they can’t interpen-
etrate. But if an object were actually made of uncharged atoms
cal view of the physical universe very held together by some other unknown force, it could literally
seriously when they talked about dif- pass right through you.
May–July 2008 83
!"#$%&'(%))*&+,+-.//00012 23453!1000,6216,207(
LIVING IN THE DARK
What intrigued me was that dark matter, being as invis- pushed farther apart. So they’re exact opposites. But as to
ible as they say it is and not able to produce light or any type what these things are, I don’t know.
of electromagnetic waves, meant that this was a substance
WIE: In your work, you’ve attempted to create a synthesis of phys-
that was not composed of any electric charge. That’s what the
ics, cosmology, and consciousness. How do dark matter and dark
invisibility tells you about it—it has no charge whatsoever. Its
energy fit into that? Are they related to consciousness?
presence is determined by its gravity, which is an enormous
amount, yet the material itself is totally invisible. So it occurred HAISCH: Well, I wouldn’t necessarily assume that because nine-
to me that when the mystics were talking about subtle bodies ty-six percent of the universe is unknown stuff, there’s some-
interpenetrating with our visible body, the only way that could thing profoundly spiritual lurking there. It may not be. It may
be possible would be if these bodies were made up of some- have nothing at all to do with spiritual stuff. What I propose in
thing other than charged matter. And dark matter would fit that my book is that consciousness plays a central role in the origin
category quite well. of the universe, that the universe is the product of conscious-
ness, the product of a conscious intelligence. You’ll find some
WIE: So you’re envisioning dark matter as a subtler form of matter,
startling evidence for this if you look at quantum physics today,
but which somehow coexists in the same space as regular matter,
because a lot of research—such as the University of Vienna’s
in layers stacked atop one another?
experiment last year expanding on the Bell Inequality—is really
KAZANIS: Yes, you could picture these different types of pointing to the idea that consciousness is necessary to resolve
atoms on a three-dimensional periodic table. Our ordinary quantum events, that consciousness acts at a fundamental
periodic table is a chart of charged atoms. Then layered level to basically create reality.
above that would be a periodic table of atoms that are made
WIE: Is this the idea that the universe somehow didn’t fully exist
up of, say, pranic, or etheric, matter—which in India would
until humans came on the scene to observe it, to collapse quantum
correspond to what they call the pranamaya kosha. Above that
probabilities into concrete reality with our consciousness?
might be a layer of atoms that have a manomaya kosha type of
matter, or mental matter, and above that would be a layer of HAISCH: No, I wouldn’t say that because I attribute the origin of
vijnanamaya matter, or soul matter, and anandamaya matter, the universe, not to human beings, but to a preexisting intel-
or spirit matter, depending on how you wanted to look at it. ligence. I think this intelligence is both beyond space and time
You can break the gradations up into many different levels, and beyond the universe, but also lives deeply in it, entering
as different cultures have. into all the life forms in that universe such as you and me, such
as the plants and animals on this planet, such as the alien civi-
Deno Kazanis, a biophysicist, was formerly head of the Orlando Branch lizations that probably exist elsewhere. It’s the entering of con-
Laboratory. He has been a research associate at Duke University, has studied
sciousness into all of these forms that, I think, is the purpose
both Tibetan Buddhism and Taoism, and is the author of The Reintegration of
Science and Spirituality (2002). behind the universe—for God to experience reality, to experi-
ence physicality, to experience some of its infinite potential—
and that ultimately the consciousness in all of us will return to
❖❖❖
the fountain of intelligence that made the universe in the first
place. We are simply sparks of a huge bonfire of conscious-
ness, and ultimately we return to the source.
B ernard Haisch: The con-

cept of dark matter is
needed to provide an addi-
tional gravitational force to explain
some of the things that we see in
Bernard Haisch, an astrophysicist, was formerly editor in chief of the Journal
of Scientific Exploration. He has worked at the Lockheed Martin Solar and
Astrophysics Laboratory, among other research institutions, and is the author
of The God Theory (2006).
the cosmos, such as the rotation

curves of galaxies. Dark energy,
however, might as well be called antigravity, because To hear the interviews in their entirety, go to
it’s something we invoke in order to explain the acceler- wie.org/darkmatter
ating expansion of the cosmos or why things are being
!"#$%&'(%))*&+,+-.//00012 34564!1000,7317,809(
FEATURE
The Mythic
Life & Times of
Deepak
Chopra
by ANDREW COHEN
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the amazing pace with which he lives was in the midst of taping his weekly whether—it be on Larry King, your
his relentless globe-trotting life while three-hour show on Sirius Radio, so local PBS channel, or the cover of
writing bestseller after bestseller, he invited me to come on as a guest Newsweek—represents a grow-
giving lectures, teaching workshops, before having lunch and then heading ing acceptance of his authority as a
leading retreats, making movies, over to the Chopra Center in midtown spokesperson for nondenominational
coordinating conferences, and, like a Manhattan to conduct the interview. East-meets-West spirituality able to
many-armed God from an Indian myth, Only two days before, Deepak told me, comment on every subject under the
keeping a hand in more projects than he had flown to and from Bahrain, sun. One doesn’t have to be in com-
could be contained in most mortal where he participated in a prestigious plete philosophical alignment with
minds at one time. If you get to know leadership conference. On his way Deepak to appreciate and respect
him, you’ll find him always on fire back, he stopped in Boston, where he the positive significance of his infl u-
and full of passion, enthusiasm, gave his annual talk at the Harvard ence on mainstream culture all over
and goodwill. Medical School. And the next day, the world.
I must admit, however, that I back in New York, he addressed a As we sat down for this interview
didn’t always see Deepak in this light. packed house of delegates at the in his tiny office at the Chopra Center,
Indeed, my original—and erroneous— United Nations. As we walked together my personal curiosity was to find out
impression from his public persona through the crowded streets, he was how he does it all and what his inner
(and I hope he will forgive me for approached more than once by enthu- life is really like. And while I can’t say
saying this!) was that he was kind of siastic and grateful strangers thanking I found the answers to all my ques-
a lightweight salesman whose ambi- him effusively for changing their lives. tions, I did discover that the life that
tion superseded his spiritual depth. As always, he remained gracious and Deepak Chopra lives has always been
Ten years ago, we even did a mildly took it all in stride. of mythic proportions.
disparaging interview with him for As someone who at one time didn’t
WIE entitled “The Man with the Golden take Deepak very seriously, I have
Tongue.” But after getting to know grown to appreciate what a significant
him over the past few years, spend- figure he has become on the world
ing some intimate time together, and stage as an advocate for conscious-
even teaching together, I realized how ness and social transformation. He
wrong I had been. So the idea for this is passionate in his commitment to
interview came up partly because I overturning the materialist worldview
wanted to make up for my error in rampant in Western thinking, not only
judgment, and partly because I hoped as it relates to medicine, his original
to be able to portray a side of him that profession, but as it affects our fun-
most people never get to see. damental relationship to the universe
On the day of our interview, Deepak we live in. His sheer omnipresence, Deepak Chopra & Andrew Cohen
May–July 2008 87
08_Deepak.indd 87 3/19/08 3:59:20 PM

THE MYTHIC LIFE & TIMES OF DEEPAK CHOPRA
vulnerability. If his parents come back, he’ll be fi ne.” A short

while later my parents returned—in those days it took three
weeks by boat—and literally within a week, my brother’s
condition went away. Now, in hindsight, I think that was my
fi rst insight into the relationship between what we call biol-
ogy and what’s happening in consciousness.
My father was totally trained in the Western model, a car-
Deepak as a baby with his parents, 1949 diologist. He was very well known and respected, and he was
very much into the materialistic reductionist model of medi-
ANDREW COHEN: Who are the people who have most influenced cine. But then in his later years he suddenly became extremely
your spiritual evolution, and what effect did they have on you? spiritual. He was, for me, a role model—I never saw him
angry; I never saw him upset. He used to come home and
DEEPAK CHOPRA: In order of importance: my mother, my
tell my mother about all his patients, and they would pray for
father, and my grandmother on my father’s side, and later on,
the patients. He was very successful, but on Saturdays and
J. Krishnamurti and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Sundays he would see patients free of charge. We lived in a
COHEN: Could you describe the influence that your mother, your small town, Jamalpur, and patients used to come from all over
father, and your grandmother had on you? the country to see him, and he would not charge them. My
mother would even cook food for the patients, and when they
CHOPRA: My grandmother used to tell my brother and me
left he would buy the train or bus ticket if they didn’t have
mythical stories. And then she used to explain the mythical
money. So this was extraordinary to see. When I was about
stories. This was when I was only four or five years old, but I
ten years old, we left this town, because he was an army doctor
still remember every story that she told us. My mother would
and had been re-posted to Shilong, in the Himalayas. And ten
then later sing those stories in the original Sanskrit from the
thousand people came to the railway station to see him off!
Vedas. They were very powerful stories, and she would tell us
that we have to be like this god or this goddess—be like Ram, COHEN: That’s extraordinary.
or be like Lakshmi. Anytime we had a dilemma she would
CHOPRA: He was so loved. And then when we left the next
say, “How would Saraswati or Lakshmi or Ram behave in this
town, three years later, the same thing happened: Ten thou-
situation?”
sand people came to see him off. But he didn’t take it too seri-
When I was only about six or seven years of age, my father
ously. He just said, “This is my yoga.”
got a scholarship to go to England to train in advanced cardi-
ology. And for a short while, my mother joined him, so my COHEN: He sounds like a very spiritual man. But didn’t you say
brother and I were left with our grandparents in Bombay. One he was a materialist?
day we got a telegram from England that my father had passed
his exams; he was in the Royal College of Physicians. There
was lots of celebration. My grandfather was thrilled his son
had become a consultant to the royal family, and so he took out
his rifle and shot it into the sky. We went to see a movie called
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and then we came home. That
night my grandfather died.
We were woken up in the middle of the night, my brother
and I, and the servants took us to a neighbor’s house. But
we could hear the wailing of women. The next day they took
him for cremation. They came back with a jar of ashes, and
my grandmother said, “That’s your grandfather.” I went into
a huge existential crisis at the age of seven. And my broth-
er’s skin started to peel. He went to all kinds of doctors,
and nobody could understand what was going on, until one
doctor said, “He’s feeling vulnerable and this is a sign of his Deepak (right) with childhood friends, 1959
!"#$%%&'()*+,,---"" ./01/!"---2345354-67
CHOPRA: He was a materialist in the beginning, in a huge way.
COHEN: So his selfless compassion was inspired, I guess, by a love for

humanity, not necessarily a love for God in the traditional sense?
CHOPRA: Yes, not a love for God in the traditional sense, a
love for humanity. But he used to talk about karma yoga.
He used to quote the Gita. And he lived an amazing life.
He lived to eighty-five or eighty-six and saw patients till the
last day of his life. He died, incidentally, on the day that
Bush came to the White House, the fi rst time around. He
watched the news on CNN in India and said to my mother,
“I think this is a bad sign. I’m leaving.” Literally. And he
said, “Say good-bye to the kids,” and then he closed his eyes
and left. But till the day he died, he was working, seeing
patients, teaching medical students. And toward the end of
his life, he was lecturing at the Vedanta Society in India
about health and well-being from a holistic perspective. So
he had become very spiritual.
COHEN: That’s quite a role model. It sounds like your father was
a saintly man.
CHOPRA: He was. In fact, I used to ask my mother, “Is he always
Self-portrait, 1961
like this?” because he was like that with us. We would be play-
ing cricket, and he’d notice that the bat was worn out, and he
had just come home from work, and he would go the store and very enticing. I would come home and talk about it, and my
buy a new bat and leave it at our door. He noticed these things. parents would say, “We’re sending you to that school not
So I used to ask my mother, “Is he always like that?” And she because the Christians are going to convert you but because
would say, “Your father is a saint.” you’re getting a good education.”
We also had Muslim friends. In fact, my best friend was
COHEN: Your grandmother was very devout. What influence did
a Muslim; his father was a prince from Afghanistan. There
that have on you? had been a revolution in Afghanistan, so the royal family was
CHOPRA: She was very devout, religious in the traditional sense, in India, and the young prince was my best friend. And I had
yes. But that just influenced me via osmosis. My mother was Sikh friends, Zoroastrians, Hindus. We even had some Jewish
like that too. My father was not overtly religious—he didn’t go friends. We used to celebrate Christmas with our Christian
to temples or pray. He prayed for his patients, but he wouldn’t friends. So religion, in my mind, meant festivals. It was always
talk about God. We went to the rituals and the ceremonies with associated with festivity and celebration. It didn’t mean God.
my mother and my grandmother. It meant going to my best friend’s house to have some sump-
tuous Afghani banquet.
COHEN: But you weren’t brought up as a religious person?
COHEN: You describe in your early autobiographical book,
CHOPRA: No, religion was not something we talked about.
Return of the Rishi, that your nanny had a boyfriend who was
You know, I went to an Irish Christian missionary school. an atheist and a communist. You write that he was very confi-
The reason we went to Irish Christian schools, even when we dent in his atheism and that had a powerful effect on you as a
were traveling, was just because they were the best schools. young teenager.
But it was very strictly Catholic, so I attended every catechism
class. I knew the whole New Testament, all the four gospels. CHOPRA: Yes, “Uncle.” He was flamboyant. He was confident.
I could recite them, and I was totally into the whole Catholic He was Anglo-Indian, and he came from a totally different back-
thing in school. When I was twelve, some of my classmates ground. He was an avowed communist and atheist. He used to
were joining the seminary to become priests. I found that paint great pictures and smoke cigarettes, and in the evening
May–July 2008 89
!"#$%%&'()*+,,---". /01.0!"---23453!!-67
he would have a glass of Scotch and talk endlessly about why CHOPRA: Yes, but we were precocious, my brother and I, and
there is no God. We were very impressed with him. we were pushed. We were very good academically, and it was
just expected in our family.
COHEN: You describe an experience when he told you he didn’t
So when I entered college, I went in with the idea of doing
believe in God, and you admit that “his logic held a guilty appeal”
English literature. But on my sixteenth birthday, my father
that left you feeling “strangely free.”
gave me some books as a present. The books were Of Human
CHOPRA: Yes, because my idea about God, as a child, was Bondage and The Razor’s Edge by William Somerset Maugham,
from Catholic school— and then a couple of others—Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis
and Magnificent Obsession by Lloyd C. Douglas. Of Human
COHEN: The mythic God.
Bondage was about a young doctor who sees human suffer-
ing and redeems himself by becoming a truly compassionate
healer. Magnificent Obsession was about a neurosurgeon who
accidentally kills somebody in an automobile accident and
then becomes obsessed with helping people anonymously.
Arrowsmith was also about a doctor or a healer. The Razor’s
Edge, of course, was a classic, and on the very first page, it says:
“The path to enlightenment is not easy. It’s like treading the
razor’s edge.” I didn’t know what that meant, but the story cap-
tivated me.
So then I started to experience a lot of struggle within
myself. I was studying English literature, but now I wanted to
be a doctor. The problem was, I had not taken biology in high
school. So I went back to my father.
COHEN: Obviously, giving you those books was his way of trying
to convince you.
CHOPRA: Yes, totally. He was very good at that. So I came
back to him, and I said, “I’ve changed my mind; I want to be
a doctor.”
Deepak and his college debating team receiving an award
COHEN: He must have been very happy.
CHOPRA: The God who punishes, rewards, judges, watches CHOPRA: He was happy, but then he said, “You didn’t do biol-
your every move. So that was a relief, yes. ogy.” I said, “I want to do it now.” So he got me a private tutor,
and while I went through college learning English literature,
COHEN: So after that conversation, were you less religiously
every day I had private tuition in biology. At the end of college
inclined than you had been up until that point?
I passed my exams in English literature. You could appear for
CHOPRA: Yes. And by the time I got out of high school, I was an exam in pre-med without having done the course, so I did
not at all religiously inclined. My friends who had joined the that one, too, and I passed. Then I applied to the best medical
seminary would talk to us sometimes, and all those things school in India, which used to take only thirty-five students
that you hear about the Catholic Church—the scandals of out of five thousand people who applied. It was all based on
pedophilia, etc.—I heard all that and was totally disgusted. So exams—no recommendations, nothing else. So I got into med-
I didn’t want anything to do with God or religion or anything ical school. I really wanted to be a doctor now, at any cost.
like that. I wanted to be a journalist, a writer. When I finished
COHEN: So you were studying very hard then?
high school, which I did early, at the age of fourteen or fif-
teen, my father wanted me to become a physician, but I said, CHOPRA: Very hard. The school was called the All Indian
no, I’m going to be a writer. So I went to college at the age of Institute of Medical Sciences. It was competitive; it was
fifteen or sixteen to study English literature. American, founded by the Rockefellers, who had fi nanced
it partially.
COHEN: That must have been young to go to college.
!"#$%%&'()*+,,---.! /01.0!"---23453!4-67
COHEN: And how old were you then? ended, and there were no doctors. So I got used to barely two
or three hours of sleep.
CHOPRA: By the time I got into medical school I was seven-
During my residency, I arranged my work in such a way
teen and a half. I spent five years in medical school, from 1964 that I could go to all these different hospitals for training. But
to 1969. we weren’t paid. You got a basic stipend, and everything extra
COHEN: Were you very inspired? you did for training was on your own.
I had this great vision of being a neuroendocrinologist
CHOPRA: I was inspired, but by now, I had kind of fallen into
and getting a Nobel Prize. So I used to train at these places
interesting habits: smoking, drinking—sometimes a lot of and not get paid for it, just to work as an apprentice to some-
drinking. We tried LSD, etc. one famous. But my stipend was only $202 and my rent was
COHEN: That was the time for LSD! $120. By then I was married and I had one child. There’s no
way you can live on $82. So I used to work throughout the
CHOPRA: We had lots of American students, hippies, in our
day, and then there was a little hospital outside of Boston
school, and even professors who were hippies. I used to get where I would go in the night and work as an emergency
some money from my parents, but it wasn’t enough for the
lifestyle I was leading, so I used to debate as a professional
debater. It was a tradition in colleges and in professional
schools. You would just show up for the debate, they would !"#$#%&'"()%'"'*"+),-"
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announce a topic, and you would have to speak about it.
COHEN: Any topic?
CHOPRA: Any topic, ridiculous topics. “In the opinion of the

house, Christopher Columbus went too far . . .”
0*#"*1"1-2$/$*%"*1"
COHEN: So this was in elite intellectual circles? )%.'+$%/"2$3-"'+)'4"!"
CHOPRA: Totally. What happened was I started winning the
debates, and the judges of these debates were very accom-
567'"()%'-#"'*"8-")"
plished, well-known personalities on Indian radio. Once I
started winning the debates, they called me and said, “We
5*61%)2$7'"*1")"(1$'-14
could use somebody to substitute for us at night, reading the
news on All India Radio.” So they would leave at eleven, and All room doctor. I used to work twenty-four hours—and in
India Radio used to broadcast news every hour throughout the between, get some sleep!
night. So from eleven to seven, I would go and read the news.
Soon I had a fan base all over East Africa and Mozambique! I COHEN: That’s impressive.
was eighteen. CHOPRA: There’s one incident I should tell you about, which
I loved the lifestyle. I was one of the few people who could was the pivotal incident. I was interested in neuroendocrinol-
afford a Lambretta scooter. I used to ride that, and I used to ogy, because the field was all about the “molecules of emo-
read the news, and I used to have a good time. I was not inter- tion.” I didn’t know back then that I was going to get interested
ested at all in spirituality throughout medical school. in spirituality, but I was fascinated by the idea that there were
COHEN: When did you study if you were up all night on the radio? molecules that represented emotions. So I got a hard-to-get
fellowship with the president of the Endocrine Society. He
CHOPRA: I just knew how to do this. I could study and be on
was very ambitious, and the organization used to publish hun-
the radio. I was a workaholic. I still am, in many ways, but now dreds of papers in the field. He was ready to be nominated for
because I don’t have those toxic habits I can go even longer. the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology, so for me, it was
COHEN: So when did you sleep? the best thing that could have happened.
But soon after I entered the fellowship, I realized that these
CHOPRA: I got used to sleeping only two or three hours. Even
guys were not about science in the true sense of the word. They
after I came to the United States, the working conditions of were about who could publish faster. We would sit around
interns and residents were terrible. The Vietnam War had just every morning, and he would go through all the journals and
May–July 2008 91
!"#$%%&'()*+,,---./ 01/.1!"---23453/!-67
see who had published papers in our field. Every time some- would talk to me. That’s when I took a day job in the emer-
body else had published a paper in our field of research, the gency room, and that’s where I met somebody who said, “You
professor, who I idolized, used to throw the journals around know, Deepak, you should learn meditation.” So that’s how it
and go into tantrums. So within a month or two, I was feel- all started. If I hadn’t walked out on that professor, I’d still be
ing quite disheartened. I had come here to do research in this in some lab putting iodine in rat thyroids and maybe hoping
amazing new field with the team that was going to win the for a Nobel Prize.
Nobel Prize one day, but then I realized that it was all about
COHEN: You said that your biggest spiritual influences were J.
one-upmanship.
Krishnamurti and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Did you get interested
About six weeks into my training, it all came to a head.
in Krishnamurti before or after you started meditating?
He berated me in front of the entire research department for
not remembering the exact amount of iodine that had been CHOPRA: Krishnamurti was before I started meditating. I
fed to some rats in a 1959 research paper. “I’m so disgusted,” didn’t have a job; I didn’t have a fellowship. I’d gone through
he shouted. “You should have that information in your head this whole crisis, questioning what I was doing in the lab. So I
by now!” was reading a lot, because then I didn’t have much to do. I was
So very impulsively I picked up my bag and dumped it on in the emergency room, only working one shift, and for me an
his head and said, “Now you have it on your head, and I’m eight-hour shift was nothing!
COHEN: So you were questioning what you were doing because in
!"#$%&"&'()"($)&(*$+,$
this great doctor who you had looked up to and idolized, you just
saw pure ambition and you felt disillusioned?
-#.$/0',1$#2#'3+"(45$ CHOPRA: Yes. I saw pure ambition, and also I saw that in aca-
demic medicine, it was not about patients. So I was totally
&4*$6,'7$6(+"$-#8$ disillusioned.
COHEN: And that’s what inspired you to start inquiring spiritually?
9:;;$+#&<"$3,=$&>,=+$ CHOPRA: Inquiring and reading. I was reading mostly
<,4)<(,=)4#)).$&4*$ Krishnamurti at that time. And then he gave a lecture here in

New York City at Madison Square Garden, at the Felt Forum. It
3,=$<&4$+&;7$+,$+"#$ was January 8, 1977.

COHEN: I might have been there! I saw Krishnamurti at the Felt
6",;#$6,';*$&>,=+$(+8? Forum in Madison Square Garden about that time—it was in the
late seventies.
CHOPRA: I remember, he ran up the stairs, and people started to
done. I’m leaving.” He looked at me in amazement and said, clap. He looked at the audience and said, “Why are you clapping?
“Do you know what you are doing?” And I said, “I’m walk- If you want entertainment go to Broadway.” He was really harsh at
ing out on an asshole.” He said, “You know that I’m the most times. But I was fascinated by him. So then I started going to his
important endocrinologist in the country, that people from all lectures, and I started reading even more. I also didn’t fully under-
over the world want to work with me?” I said, “I don’t want stand him. Then there was an inner voice that started to speak to
to work with you.” And I walked out. He followed me into me. “He is speaking the truth; he doesn’t know how to explain it.
the parking lot, screaming at me: “You ruined your career. You have to do that one day,” the voice said. “He’s speaking the
You’re finished. You’re history.” I got into my little beat-up old truth. He’s not explaining it well, but that’s your job.”
Volkswagen beetle and just drove away. I didn’t go home. I
COHEN: Can you describe your first spiritual experience?
went to a bar and got drunk.
My wife was pregnant with our second child at that time, CHOPRA: In hindsight, I’d had spiritual experiences all my
and she was dismayed, upset, fearful. The next day we didn’t life. As a child, I had experiences playing. I used to do theater,
have any salary or job or stipend, and nobody in academia Shakespeare, and now I realize that during the play itself, I’d be
!"#$%%&'()*+,,---./ 012.1!"---/34532!-67
“I want to
tell you one
more story…”
George said, “You know, of
course, that he was assassinated.”
This was twenty years after the fact. And Ma-
harishi said, “Yes, I was very grieved to hear
about that. But that’s not the important story.
Tell Deepak the really important story, about
when you went to America.” And so George I knew that they were angels on Earth. So I
told me (and I don’t know if this is really true don’t mind what John said. He was an angel
but it is part of Beatles mythology) that when on Earth.” And George started to cry. As we
the Beatles came to the US and they were left, we took the flowers back, and George
on the Ed Sullivan Show, according to FBI looked at Maharishi and he said, “I love you
With George Harrison, 1998 statistics, for that hour there was no crime in Maharishi.” And the Maharishi looked up to
the country. him, and said, “Me too.” It was very touching,
I WAS WITH GEORGE HARRISON when Maharishi smiled: “When I heard that very beautiful. And not so long after that
he went to apologize to Maharishi for what these four boys could stop America and free George got sick and died. So he concluded
happened in 1969. [The Beatles left Rishikesh it of crime for one hour with their music, the karmic debt very gracefully.
abruptly in 1969, after John accused the
Maharishi of sexual misconduct.] George
wanted to say to Maharishi that everything
John Lennon said about him was not true,
that maybe it was because of the drugs, or
whatever. And so we went to see Maharishi.
The custom was to give him a flower, a red
rose, and when we left, he would give the
rose back, having blessed it. So we went and
gave him the rose, and then we sat and med-
itated for about fifteen minutes. It was just
George, me and Maharishi. And then George
said, “I’m sorry Maharishi.” And Maharishi
asked, “For what?” “For what happened in
’69,” George replied. And Maharishi asked,
“What happened?” George said, “You know,
what John said . . .” “Yes, I heard vaguely
something John said,” Maharishi replied.
“But you know, we love John, all of us.” And
With the Maharishi, 1990
May–July 2008 93
!"#$%%&'()*+,,---./ /01.0!"---234531!-67
playing Julius Caesar, and my body was lying there, and I was CHOPRA: Right. I was experiencing joy and ease, not thinking
watching it from the outside, right in the middle of a play. So about the future at all.
in hindsight, I had these experiences all my life.
COHEN: How did that compare with your experience before that?
COHEN: Out-of-body experiences?
CHOPRA: It was a huge contrast. I had been on a treadmill—
CHOPRA: Yes, totally nonlocal, to use today’s language. I had like everybody else in residency, training, and fellowship. You
tried LSD in medical school twice. One experience was with worked hard, you played hard, you were always trying to be
these American hippie medical students. We’d all taken LSD, better than the other guy. It was just the way it was—even the
and we were on a train from Delhi to Madras. We were looking professors were doing the same thing.
at this poster of Mother Teresa, and we all started to cry. For
COHEN: So this shift happened almost instantaneously when you
that entire trip we wanted to be with Mother Teresa. So these
started meditating?
were all very interesting experiences, but I never put them in
the context of spirituality. But then when I started meditation, CHOPRA: Yes. The contrast was instantaneous. But it did
suddenly it clicked. remind me of previous spiritual experiences I’d had.
COHEN: Can you describe a little bit about what started happen-
!"#$%"$&#$'%"$()*+*,-%."
ing inside you?
CHOPRA: I started feeling light. Started feeling bright. Started
!"/-0%%"!"%+*&&"$(."1-+" feeling joyful. Started feeling ecstatic. Started feeling that I

loved everybody. Started feeling that I wanted to help every-
+20"304%,5$&"%+$60"*%" body. I also started feeling that everybody in the world should
meditate! That was instantaneous.
5,+"+2040"$5'"(,40." COHEN: In the book, when you describe your first meeting with
Maharishi, you explain that sitting in his presence your mind
!+7%"$"804'"9400*5/" became totally quiet. You write: “I felt completely unselfconscious.
It didn’t usually cross my mind that I carried the weight of my
3,%*+*,5"+,")0"*5. own self-consciousness until that moment, when it dropped off.” I
thought that was very compelling.
CHOPRA: Yes, because the silence was very profound. It was,
as they say, deafening. And even though I’d experienced it
COHEN: What was the original reason you started to meditate?
before, it wasn’t this sustained silence.
CHOPRA: I was reading a lot about meditation itself, reading That first meeting was, to me, seemingly accidental. My
Muktananda’s Play of Consciousness. I had always loved the wife and I had flown from Boston to Washington to hear him
theories of consciousness. I could tell you everything from speak. After the lecture, I had just come out of the men’s
Ludwig Wittgenstein to Schopenhauer to the Upanishads— room, and suddenly there he was, coming round the corner.
I’d read it all by now. I just kept reading and reading vora- He walked right up to us and said, “Come up to my room.” We
ciously. Then I started to read Vedanta and realized, “Oh, I’ve followed him upstairs, and after asking me a few questions
had these experiences.” So when I fi nally took up transcenden- about myself, he started telling me I should do Ayurveda, and
tal meditation (TM), I really woke up. It was an amazing thing. I should talk about consciousness to the world. My wife was
I completely lost my desire for alcohol, for cigarettes, for meat, not so influenced by him as I was, and I could see just by her
etc. It was transformative, absolutely. So when later I had the body language that she wanted to get the hell out of there. We
opportunity to meet Maharishi, or actually to see him in a lec- had left the kids in Boston with babysitters, and she wanted to
ture, I jumped at it. I was like a new convert. I started telling get home. At one point he said to me, “You should drop every-
everybody why they should meditate. thing and you should work with me and I’ll teach you about
consciousness, and you can talk to the whole world about it.”
COHEN: You wrote in your book Return of the Rishi that right
She looked at him and asked sarcastically, “So who’s going to
after you started meditating, you were experiencing a kind of joy
pay the mortgage? Where is the money going to come from?”
that was so profound that you were almost embarrassed.
!"#$%%&'()*+,,---./ 012.1!"---34/5425-67
Images from a Mythic Life
From top left:

Visiting with doctors at Harvard Medical
School, 2003 • With the Dalai Lama, 2000
• With Rosa Parks, 1999 • During a 2006
appearance on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report
• In the Oval Office with President Clinton,
2000 • At the 2004 Parliament of the World’s
Religions in Barcelona • Deepak (middle,
holding the baby) at a family wedding, 2004
• At a book signing • Broadcasting his Deepak
Chopra Wellness show, 2007 • Teaching at St.
Mary the Virgin Church in New York, 2008 •
As a young doctor
May–July 2008 95
!"#$%%&'()*+,,---./ 012.1!"---3456426-78
And he bent forward and said, “The money will come from How to Wake Up the Body’s Intelligence, but no publisher would
wherever it is at the moment.” I had never heard a statement accept that book. So I self-published it—I got five hundred
like that! But she brushed it off and said, “Let’s go home.” So copies printed. A couple of my friends in Cambridge took the
we left. books on their bicycles, and we convinced the Harvard Coop
We went to the airport and there, by chance, I met an manager to put it in the window for three days. And an agent
old colleague from Australia who had gone to medical school picked it up, and she called me and said, “You should get this
with me. He told me he was interested in meditation, and he published.” “We tried,” I told her. “It didn’t work.” So she said,
gave me a book. It was Vasant Lad’s Ayurveda: The Science of “I’ll get you a publisher,” and she got me a $5,000 advance.
Self-Healing. The book was published by Houghton Mifflin. It was a simple
book with lots of examples of my patients’ mind-body effects,
COHEN: Now I know why you’re so enthusiastic about synchronicity!
mostly questions, but I don’t think there had been a book at
CHOPRA: Synchronicity, yes! So I read the book on the fl ight that time, popular or otherwise, that said, your mind can create
from Washington to Boston. When we got to Boston, I said the difference between health and sickness. So that book became
to my wife, “Rita, you go home and take care of the kids. I’m a national bestseller.
going back.” She said, “Are you crazy?” “Yes, I’m crazy,” I said. The next thing I know, I’m lecturing in Paris with
So I took the next flight back. By now Maharishi was busy with Maharishi, and I’m getting calls from people like Jacqueline
other people, and they said, “He’s not making new appoint- Kennedy Onassis at Doubleday: “We want you as an author.”
ments.” I said, “You tell him that I’m outside this room, and I’m getting calls from Peter Guzzardi, editor of Stephen
Hawking’s A Brief History of Time: “We want you.” Some of
!"#$%&'()'$*%'+%,(#$%(-%
them even started to fly over to where I was to recruit me. I
signed up with the New York publisher Bantam Books, which
used to publish a lot of this kind of stuff. And of course, every
$#$)./)$&$-'%01'-$&&1-2% book did better than the previous one. Suddenly it was huge. It
was totally unexpected.
(0()$-$&&3%!%412,'%5$% COHEN: And that was in the early eighties?
*+1-2%(-6',1-27%58'%',$% CHOPRA: Yes. It was 1984. The next book I wrote was Return
of the Rishi, which nobody noticed except the New York Times,
01'-$&&%*+$&-"'%9$(#$%4$:% which gave it a good review. But then the third book, Quantum
Healing, was big. It was on the cover of many magazines. And
1'"&%0,+%!%)$(996%(43% then there was Oprah, in 1992, which was huge. After Oprah,
in twenty-four hours there were 130,000 books sold. In the
first week, 800,000 books sold. In the fi rst month, one mil-
lion books sold. It just didn’t stop—it hit the roof. And in my
I’m not leaving till he sees me.” I waited for three days. Finally mind, I gave all the credit to Maharishi at that time, because
I got in, and I said to him, “Okay, I’m ready. Show me what to he had said, “The money will come from wherever it is at the
do.” That’s when he took me under his wing. I started going moment.” I told my wife, “See what he said?” So I gave him all
back and forth to India to be with him. Soon I was spend- the credit for everything.
ing half my time in India, going to Ayurvedic doctors and sit-
COHEN: At that time, when you were teaching and lecturing, it
ting in Maharishi’s presence while they talked to each other
was under his auspices?
about Vedanta. And he would send me to give lectures here
and there. CHOPRA: Yes. I was teaching and lecturing under his aus-
pices throughout the world—Japan, the Soviet Union, Eastern
COHEN: So was that when you decided to become a dis-
Europe. The first time we went to Moscow, I gave a lecture to a
ciple, to give your life to the study of consciousness and also
thousand people about meditation. The next day, six hundred
to Ayurveda?
people learned to meditate! It was an amazing time. People all
CHOPRA: Yes. Then I spent all my time with Maharishi. over the world were learning meditation. It was fabulous. It
By then, I had written a little book called Creating Health: was thrilling. It was easy. There’s no English word for this, but
08_Deepak.indd 96 3/19/08 4:01:06 PM

it was sattvic. It was beautiful. And soon I became Maharishi’s he was a sannyasi, and there were lots of Indian rules and regu-
substitute. lations about this, spiritually. So while that was all being done,
he suddenly started to recover. It was quite inexplicable. His kid-
COHEN: His number one representative?
ney functions came back. His heart function came back. His
CHOPRA: Number one representative. He had stopped travel- pacemaker was no longer required, and he just sat up in bed.
ing by then. We said, “Maharishi, what happened?” He said, “I must have
hurt my ribs or something.” He was very casual about it.
COHEN: So why did you eventually leave him and go off on your
So I started to nurse him. Rita and I moved to England for
own, and what changed in you as a result?
a while. First we had him in a hotel in London, and we would
CHOPRA: Well, first of all, he got sick, in India. We don’t know take walks in Hyde Park every day. Occasionally, we would
what the cause of it was, but it was rumored that it was poison- meet somebody who would say, “Hey, that’s the guru of the
ing. My father was his physician, and he said, “He’s not going to Beatles.” And my wife would say, “No, no, that’s my father-
survive unless he gets dialysis.” They had no dialysis in India at in-law.” Then he got even better, and we moved him into a
the time, so I flew to England and registered him in a hospital. place outside of London, in the country. He was convalescing.
This is not public knowledge, but I don’t care anymore; some- There was no one there except for a couple of servants. Rita
times the history has to be told. I registered him under a false used to shuttle back and forth between Boston and England;
name, a Muslim Arab name. Then my father and two other doc- I stayed, and for twelve, fourteen hours a day we would talk
tors flew to England with him. He had a cardiac arrest, he was about Vedanta, about consciousness.
put on a pacemaker, and he was given up for dead. We were try-
COHEN: Just you and him?
ing to contact the next of kin, which was a slow process because
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CHOPRA: Just me and him. And I would challenge him; I would Return of Merlin, which made it to the New York Times fiction
ask him questions. He would laugh; he was very happy. And so bestseller list. It was about a period that I knew nothing about
was I. Twelve hours, fourteen hours, doing nothing—talking personally! It just came to me during this time. Just by picking
only about consciousness. He would go into great detail about up these little postcards, I wrote that book.
how consciousness is silent, then the first impulse arises, and
COHEN: So this book was not the result of any kind of study?
how that impulse comes from the unmanifest, and what is the
edge of the manifest and the unmanifest. He could go on for CHOPRA: Not other than the postcards.
hours like that—the impulse of consciousness hovering on
COHEN: So it had some kind of fantastic, miraculous dimension
the edge of the manifest and the unmanifest. I could see the
to it?
extreme joy in him as he would explain that, and I could feel
the extreme joy. I was just with him, and the world was lumi- CHOPRA: Absolutely, yes. That was the feeling. And then many
nous. So this went on for a whole year—just me and him. things like that started to happen to me—lots of what you call
One very interesting thing happened during this time. We cognition—sudden experiences, like suddenly understanding
were in the southwest of England, near Devon. He used to sleep what Maharishi was saying about the Rig Veda, very transfor-
in the afternoons, so I would take a bike and visit the ruins mative shifts inside, seeing the world completely differently.
around there. I started to buy little postcards of Arthurian leg- A year later, we moved him from England to Vlodrop,
ends—Lancelot, Arthur, this, that, and the other. I knew noth- which is outside of Amsterdam. And then, since he had
ing about King Arthur or anything like that, but during this completely stopped traveling, I became the traveler. I went
phase, I suddenly had a whole book come through me, The everywhere.
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May–July 2008 99
08_Deepak.indd 99 3/19/08 3:00:47 PM

That was when I started to notice that people were giving and also by having to stay within the philosophical framework,
me homage in a traditional Indian guru sense. I would step which is purely Vedantic—which is great, but you know, it’s
out of an airplane, and people would place garlands round my not everything.
neck. They were treating me like Maharishi. I didn’t feel com- It was Guru Purnima day* in 1993. The whole day was a
fortable with this. I didn’t even feel up to it; I didn’t feel that I celebration, and everybody used to get some private time with
was at that level. I’d say ninety-five percent of the people in the Maharishi. Around midnight on Guru Purnima, Rita and I
movement were treating me in that manner. And then there went to his room. I don’t know what was happening inside me;
was another five percent who were very angry. I had just joined I was feeling very restless. He said, “Deepak, people are saying
the movement a few years earlier; they had devoted their whole that you are competing with me.” It came as a shock, but also
lives to it. Suddenly I was the heir apparent, the prince being not as a shock, because that was what people were saying. And
groomed for the throne. So the majority of the people literally I said, “Maharishi, first of all, I would not have even the imagi-
loved me, and we’re talking about three million people! And nation to compete with you. Secondly, I don’t have the desire
then there were the few in the hierarchy who were very angry. to compete with you. Thirdly, I’m feeling very constricted.” He
Something else was also happening, in that I started to said, “Why don’t you stop lecturing for a while, stop writing,
feel that there was not much tolerance within the structure of come and be with me for a while and think about what you
the movement for anything that was outside. want to do.” I said, “Maharishi, I don’t need to think about
it. I want to leave now.” He was very shocked. He said, “No,
COHEN: It was too insular?
CHOPRA: Very insular. So that was bothering me. I felt con- * The traditional Hindu day for celebrating the guru, held on the fi rst full
stricted by the vocabulary and the structure of the movement, moon in July.
08_Deepak.indd 100 3/19/08 3:00:59 PM

no, think for a little while.” But for whatever reason, I found but I will be indifferent to you, and you’ll never hear from me
myself saying, “I don’t want to think for a while.” I took Rita’s again.” And I said, “Okay. God bless.” That was the last time I
hand, and I touched his feet, and I said, “We are leaving.” And spoke to him.
he kept looking at me, not believing that I was going. But I’m happy, because after that I suddenly found the
It was the middle of the night when we left the ashram. freedom to be creative in a way I never could be before. It’s
I rented a car, and we drove to Amsterdam and then flew now been fi fty books or more, and at that time it was only four
to Boston. As soon as we came to the house, the phone was or five. Most of my productivity came after I left. But he, of
ringing. It was Maharishi, and he said, “You’re like my son. course, groomed me for it. They say that the fruit takes a long
I said something to upset you.” I answered, “No. You didn’t time to ripen, and then it falls. At that moment it fell. And
say anything to upset me. But I needed an excuse to leave.” I felt, “Now I don’t have to report to anyone. I can do what
Then he said, “You don’t realize”—he used this word—“we I want.” Then everything happened by itself. There was no
have an empire and it’s yours.” “Maharishi,” I told him, “you strategy at all.
don’t understand. I don’t want that empire. I want freedom. I
COHEN: So it sounds like the main catalyst for your leaving was
want to think the way I think. I want to write the way I write.
the fact that your own creative inspiration was transcending, push-
I want to speak the way I speak. I don’t fi nd that I can do that
ing beyond the sphere of the TM movement. What did you do after
here.” “You will be able to,” he insisted. I replied, “No, I won’t.
you left?
It’s a system, now, and it’s a system that has created some-
thing that makes it impossible to work outside the system.” He CHOPRA: I went to California to give a lecture, and I met David
asked, “So what do you want to do?” And I told him, “I want Simon, a very remarkable doctor who actually knows as much
to leave.” These were his last words: “Then go. I will love you, about consciousness as I do, if not more. We’ve been working
May–July 2008 101
08_Deepak.indd 101 3/19/08 3:01:13 PM

together now for about fifteen years; we’re a perfect team. If I have at night when I go to sleep, I meditate for half an hour, then
to go on CNN or something, I now get called at the drop of a hat. sleep for half an hour, meditate for half an hour, sleep for half
“President Clinton announces the genome project. Dr. Chopra an hour. When I’m sleeping it’s a totally witnessing sleep. My
will be commenting on Larry King.” And what do I know about wife knows this, because she sees me sitting up in bed. And
the genome project or stem cells? So I call David. There’s noth- I’ve started to have a very sober, nondramatic but distinct,
ing in the world of mind-body medicine that I need to know that ever-present witnessing awareness, whether I’m sleeping or
David can’t give to me within a few hours—not only the informa- dreaming or in a waking state. The witness is always there; it’s
tion, but he also hashes it out in terms of consciousness. there now, for example. It’s not dramatic, but it’s very much
So we’re partners now in everything we do. There are a part of who I am at the moment. And I don’t prepare anymore.
few books we’ve written together, and he’s an influence in I used to prepare lectures, like speaking at Harvard Medical
everything I do. But he stays behind the scenes. He has a lot School, where my brother is a dean, which I do once a year. But
of self-esteem, in that he’s grounded in this knowledge of con- now I find that I give my lectures very naturally. It comes spon-
sciousness in a way that he’s not competing for attention or taneously, and there is a witnessing quality as I am speaking.
anything like that. That’s a partnership for life.
COHEN: When you say “witnessing quality,” can you describe
COHEN: Since the initial awakening you had, after you started medi- what that experience is?
tating, have you had any other significant spiritual experiences?
CHOPRA: My body is asleep, but I’m observing my body in
CHOPRA: You know, I don’t even tell this to people who come deep sleep. My body is dreaming, and I’m observing my body
to our courses, because we never share anything personal. in the dream state. My body is speaking to you; I’m observing
But what has happened is that for the last ten or twelve years, my body as it sits with these two people in this room. I might
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08_Deepak.indd 102 3/19/08 3:01:37 PM

be doing anything, but that witness doesn’t leave me; it’s here. about a comedian who has existential dilemmas but covers
And it’s who I really am, I think. them up with his jokes. These things just happen to me. And
there’s a part of me that is totally not involved. It’s been like
COHEN: So that is the part of the self that never moves?
that now for ten, twelve years.
CHOPRA: It never moves. And it’s great, because I can go from
COHEN: So this started about ten or twelve years ago. Was there
here to Bahrain, where I was a few days ago, but that part is
anything that catalyzed it?
always watching. It’s one of the reasons that I don’t get tired.
I really do not get fatigued. I mean, it’s not like I have the best CHOPRA: Leaving Maharishi. I’m positive it was leaving
habits in the world; I still have one or two cups of coffee a Maharishi. You know, when I was with him, that silence would
day. I exercise every day, of course. But my life is all over the permeate everything. But then when I’d leave the room, or he’d
place with doing different things. I just did this “Iconoclasts” leave the room, it would be like I was hit by a truck. The contrast
show with Mike Myers. We did improv theater off-Broadway. was so much—with him, total bliss, and then as he leaves, boom.
Whatever people tell me to do, I do it. I just go and join them in You’d be hit by a truck, and you can’t even get up because as soon
their thing. Mike Myers made this silly but very funny movie as you get up, it hits you again. I used to feel that contrast.
called The Love Guru, which is coming out in June. It’s about I remember one day a Brazilian reporter said to him, “Don’t
this guy who wants to be Deepak Chopra. Mike wanted me to you ever sleep?” And Maharishi looked at him very lovingly
make a five-minute cameo appearance, so I went to do that. But and said, “My waking state is more restful than your deepest
then suddenly when I was doing that, I realized, he’s doing a sleep.” He wasn’t showing off; he was just saying what he felt.
parody of me, so I should do a parody of him. I didn’t understand it then. But I now understand it, because I
So I just finished a book called Why Is God Laughing? It’s feel like that. I don’t get tired. I don’t get fatigued. During the
Th B g l
D C
u ou B o
am Dass am Dass
ev. ichael eckwith Krishna Das
& icki yers eckwith
Yoga with Saul David aye
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May–July 2008 103
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S
T O WA R D night I sleep and meditate, sleep and meditate, throughout the
night. I get up at four or four-thirty and meditate for two hours
and then go to the gym, and then, honestly speaking, I don’t
know what the day is going to hold. I call my assistant and I
say, “Tell me, what am I doing?” This morning she said, “You
have a radio show, and then you’re meeting Andrew. You’re
ER SIDE OF going to walk with him somewhere and have a little lunch, and
THE LIGHT
MENT! then you’re going to do this interview.” So that’s how my days
ENLIGHTEN go now. Tomorrow I happen to know that I’m doing the Virtual
Pledge Drive for PBS, but there’s lots of other stuff I’m doing
tomorrow that I don’t know. It’s on my schedule; it’s probably
on the website, but I pick up my voicemail and I listen in the
morning to what I’m doing, and then I go with it. It’s very
spontaneous. For me it’s effortless now.
NSON, JR.
ALLEN JOH
COHEN: Because you travel so much, your schedule must be com-
pletely erratic, in terms of sleeping.
CHOPRA: If I’m on the plane, either I’m writing or meditating
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or I’m sleeping. But when I get to some place, no matter where
BumblingTowardsNirvana.com it is, I’m there, fully with it. I don’t experience jet lag, or any-
thing—that’s just the way it is now.
COHEN: When you’re sleeping and meditating throughout the
night, is it spontaneous now?
CHOPRA: Yes. Totally. It’s happening.
COHEN: Did you decide at any point that you wanted to do that, or
Namaste did it just start happening?

CHOPRA: I think I started to do it about twelve years ago. Maybe
Your Self I wasn’t sleeping, so I thought I’d meditate. And so I started to
do it like that. But then it became a habit, and then I started to
notice this witnessing.
In the old days with Maharishi, some people used to say to
him, “I’m not sleeping well.” And Maharishi would ask, “Are you
tired when you wake up in the morning?” And they would reply,
“No.” He would tell them, “Then you’re fine, because if you’re not
tired, you must be getting the same rest.” I remember him also
saying that when you start witnessing, your body might be sleep-
ing, but you are not. So now I know, very clearly, that my body is
sleeping during those periods but I’m not. It’s a good experience.
And by the way, it’s never been as good as it is now. I used to think
™ The privilege of a lifetime is being it was going to plateau, but it’s always increasing a little bit.
who you are.∫ COHEN: In terms of the energy and the witnessing awareness?
Joseph Campbell CHOPRA: Yes.
COHEN: What do you think the relationship is between the

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confidence you had in yourself as a young man? From the very
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beginning, it seems that you were destined for some kind of great-
*
ness. You even said at one point you wanted to win a Nobel Prize
in medicine. One way or the other, you have been driven, in a posi-
tive sense, and inspired to achieve great things and to really make
a mark—long before your spiritual interests awakened. What is
the relationship between your early ambition and the energy that
is driving you now? Obviously, there is a difference, but there also
has to be a connection. I’m interested in what the connection is.
CHOPRA: I’ll tell you what the difference is. The difference is that
now I don’t have a personal stake in what I do. I really can say that Please call about our
with conviction—that I don’t have a personal stake in anything personal and theme retreats
that I do. I do it because it’s fun. I do it because it gives me energy,
and I love doing something that’s different, creative, and that has
something to do with consciousness. It’s almost as if I’m driven
by it, rather than I’m driving it. And there is no personal stake in PeaceV illage earning& etreat enter
terms of money, recognition, fame, or fortune.
It was difficult for me to translate that into my relationships,
with my wife and with my children, because you always have a
personal stake in your family. But funnily enough, I’m realizing
that I actually don’t have the personal stake in my family that I
used to have. I mean, I want my children to do well; I want my
wife to be happy; I really want us to be together, to have the best
convivial time. But I am not now rooting for my son’s success,
or my daughter’s success—they do what they do. And I can say I
don’t have a personal stake. Then my daughter has these babies,
and my son has a child, and suddenly I start to have a personal
stake in my grandchildren, which is a very interesting thing! If
you were to ask me if I have a personal stake emotionally with
anything in the world, I would say it is with those kids. But even
there, I can see that as the years pass, it’s going to go. It’s not
that I don’t love them. I love them perhaps even more, but there’s
not that emotional attachment. That has given me an immense
ability to do things that I would not have done in the past.
What’s that expression—“You can do anything you want
when you have nothing to lose”? Well, I am in that position right
now, where I can do anything I want, and I have nothing to lose.
There was a point in my life when I used to be really hurt by criti-
cism, by attacks, by stories made up by the media. I would react
to it. But three days ago there was an eight hundred–page com-
ment on my blog, calling me all kinds of names, and I found
myself totally not reacting to it. In fact, I was trying to see how
one could have a compassionate view of the guy who posted this.
At least I was asking myself that question. So I asked myself, why
is that? Partly it’s that I’m sixty-one years old. When you enter the
autumn of your life, and you have maybe another twenty years or
so, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? Is it going to
be all about yourself, as it has been up to this point? Or is it going
to be about other things?
May–July 2008 105
!"#$%%&'()*+,,---.!/ 01.21!"---3456405-78
I was always ambitious, I realize in hindsight—wanting to do CHOPRA: Yes. It sounds kind of lofty and idealistic, but I think
this, wanting to do that. I guess I still am. But the personal stake that if I can somehow draw the world’s attention to all the people
is not there any more. That’s the only way to describe it. It’s a very who are actually contributing in their way, perhaps we can create
freeing position to be in. a new conversation. The world is a collective conversation at any
time, and the media controls that. In the old times, in the village
COHEN: Thinking about your life, it seems to me that you were almost
square, the guy who had the megaphone was the guy in charge.
born with a very powerful intention. Obviously, that’s not an ordinary
At this moment, the guys who have the microphone are telling a
thing. There are not many people who have that kind of confidence in
very sad story. We see that story being acted out every day. So now
themselves and their capacity to accomplish great things from such
I’ve reached a certain kind of credibility where the mainstream
an early age.
is willing to invite me to speak, whether it’s CNN or Harvard
CHOPRA: That’s partly because of my mother. When we were Medical School or Bill Clinton for Save the Children. So I want to
very little, she would drum this into us: “You’ll change the world. take advantage of this mainstream exposure. I ask myself, “What
You’re bound to create extraordinary difference. You should rule. am I achieving with this?” Well, if we can suddenly have that
Saraswati and Lakshmi will follow you.” All these little stories: microphone in the village square for people like you and myself,
“You’re a prince,” etc. Mothers like to say these things to their people who are exploring the field of consciousness, there are a lot
children. And at some level, those muffled tapes keep repeating of people in the square who want to listen.
themselves in the back of my mind.
COHEN: So at this particular point in your life, beyond the incred-
Top Secret
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natural selection
B O O K S » F I L M » OT H E R M E D I A
If the tale of Jack Rosenberg doesn’t ring any bells in

your memory bank, it is probably because on that original
flight across the country in 1960, Jack decided that a new life
should include a new name. And so, while reading a maga-
zine with articles on Werner Heisenberg and Amelia Erhard,
he chose a name that was a combination of the two—Werner
Erhard. In 1971, Erhard founded what was arguably the big-
gest self-help movement in history: EST, short for Erhard
Seminars Training. Today, thirty-seven years later, he has
long since disappeared from public view.
So what ever happened to Werner Erhard? It is a ques-
tion that has long been more than a curiosity to the many
thousands of people he directly influenced, and one that
Emmy Award–winning documentary filmmaker Robyn Symon
attempts to answer in her new film Transformation: The Life
and Legacy of Werner Erhard. As a graduate of EST, or rather
its successor, The Forum, I was also quite interested to see
what Symon’s film would reveal about the life and recent
activities of this unique (and uniquely American) figure who
TRANSFORMATION has had such an impact on our culture and the direction of
The Life and Legacy of Werner Erhard the human potential movement.
Written and directed by Robyn Symon Erhard himself was certainly no stranger to mystery.
(Eagle Island Films, 2006, on DVD in May 2008, Called everything from a twentieth-century genius to a snake
www.transformationfilm.com) oil charlatan, there was a time when it seemed that everyone
had a strong opinion about just what kind of an angel or devil
At the age of twenty-five, Jack Rosenberg made a he was. But amid the considerable controversy his movement
momentous decision. As a young married man living in provoked, one thing was clear: his work made a big imprint
Philadelphia with two children, Jack felt suffocated by his on the hearts and minds of participants. Millions of people
life and resolved to make a wholesale change. Without took the EST training in the 1970s and 1980s, and hundreds
telling friends or family, he boarded a plane for the West of thousands participated in his other projects, including
Coast and left his life completely behind, determined to Youth at Risk, a program for inner-city young people, and
start anew. The year was 1960, and within one decade, the Hunger Project, an organization attempting to create
this young high school–educated Philadelphia transplant a mass consensus to end world hunger. Even today, EST
would become a star—not the kind that ends up on the survives in modified form, going by the name of The Forum.
Hollywood Walk of Fame, but one that becomes a revered And EST as an organization has continued to be successful
figure at the forefront of a mass movement. Rosenberg under the new name of Landmark Education.
would eventually start one of the fastest-growing self- Despite the endurance of the movement he began, Erhard
actualization movements of the twentieth century, impacting is no longer at the helm. After two decades of building the
millions of individual lives, reshaping institutions all over organization and steering it through a period of remarkable
the country, and, some would say, transforming the face success, he encountered a firestorm of negative publicity
of American culture. Then, in 1991, he left it all behind in the early 1990s, a storm that included allegations of tax
again. He resigned from the organization he had founded, evasion and even sexual abuse. He decided the organization
boarded another plane, and left the country, disappearing would be better off without him and disappeared from the
from the eyes of the American media and receding from public eye, his only significant public appearance in the last
the public’s consciousness. fifteen years being an interview with Larry King in 1993.
09_ReviewsBack_i40.indd 108 3/19/08 4:04:30 PM

Experience the revolutionary
teachings of Zen Master
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Unlock the power,
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Symon’s film presents a detailed and largely sympa- Untie knots, break
thetic portrait of Erhard and his work, but it is in no way a down barriers.
hagiography. Symon includes critics of Erhard and doesn’t Enhance your
shy away from addressing the issues that led him to leave relationships.
behind the organization he founded and inspired. Most
important, the film includes a great deal of face time with (#%$$''
the man himself. Symon interviewed Erhard extensively— #+$$ Big Mind Big
this is his first major media appearance in over a decade— Heart, Finding Your Way
and long-time Erhard watchers, who have not seen any -"%$+&#/
pictures or video of him in years, will be glad to know that 0)!'&' !,
the footage is generously used in the documentary. - '($#'#!,$&#!
The first half of Transformation is the best part of the film, %&$$)##(*/
a fascinating journey into the history of EST. Taking the viewer 0#!&
through the origins of the training, as remembered by Erhard,
it includes interviews with a number of graduates, several of
whom have since achieved success in their own right, includ-
ing author Lynne Twist, human potential pioneer George
Leonard, and integral theorist Michael Zimmerman. While the $& '$%'.'.(&"#$(+++#%$$&.

methods used in EST were a unique blend of the new spiritual,

philosophical, and psychological systems of thoughts that
were proliferating in the counterculture, the fundamental
inspiration came from Erhard’s own transformation, which WAKE UP NOW
can be traced to an enlightenment experience in 1968, several
years after his flight from the East Coast. This powerful expe-
A Guide to the
rience occurred, famously, while he was driving on the Golden Journey of Spiritual
Gate Bridge. In the film he recounts the event: Awakening
STEPHAN BODIAN
The way EST happened was very simple. I had this
transformational experience. I had a transformation.
Whoever I had been up until that point, I no longer was.
It was on the way to work, and I happened to be . . . on
E
the Golden Gate Bridge . . . and that’s when I had the
“Profound yet accessible,
realization that what my life was about was really mean-
ingless. It was empty. And this realization that the things this wise book leads you step by step on
that I thought were so significant, like looking good and the direct path home to your innermost true self.”
winning—just the normal things that most people think —Lama Surya Das
are important—really had no importance. They were “Guides the reader through the intricacies of
empty and meaningless. And when I broke through the
awakening as only someone who has walked the
sadness, when I broke through the despair at having
walk themselves can do.” —Adyashanti
wasted my life, I realized, my God, I’m free. What does
that mean to be free? Free to choose, free to create a
life that was worth living.
For guidance on your journey and information on
the School for Awakening, visit www.wake-up-now.org
In some respects, it was this freedom that Erhard has
spent the rest of his life trying to communicate in one form Available from McGraw-Hill and booksellers everywhere.
May–July 2008 109

NATURAL SELECTION
or another. And he drew from everything—Zen, Esalen, abuse leveled by his daughter in the early nineties—which,
Alan Watts, existentialism, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, and along with a highly negative profile aired on 60 Minutes,
Indian philosophy, not to mention his experience as a suc- forced him to leave the organization. Symon does an
cessful salesman, in order to develop the basic methodol- adequate job of covering the basic details of these events,
ogy of his work. but there is less narrative to this section, signifi cantly less
The film shows a number of clips of Erhard as a younger use of third-party interviews, and little attempt by the fi lm-
man leading the training himself. These are the most com- maker to place these controversial events in some kind of
pelling scenes in the film, and perhaps the most revealing, context. The result is a less compelling story and a film
as we get a glimpse of why Erhard’s approach to indi- that starts to feel more like a laundry list of Erhard’s many
vidual transformation captured the attention of so many. accomplishments and controversies and less like a dynamic
Charismatic, uncompromising, and incredibly confident, narrative that captures the essence of who he was and is.
Erhard took risks with his “tough love” approach that would It also becomes more subjective—more Erhard on Erhard
shock today’s kindler, gentler, politically correct culture. than Symon on Erhard.
He absolutely would not accept any psychological “game” When all is said and done, the viewer will likely be
or identity that allowed one to wallow in unhappiness, convinced that Erhard was grossly mistreated by the
dissatisfaction, or victimization. In one scene, he strides media and powers that be. (His daughter, for example,
across the seminar room and confronts an elderly woman, later admitted to making up the allegations of sexual
declaring, “I don’t have any respect for old ladies.” The abuse and is now on good terms with her father, and the
camera shifts to the woman’s distressed face as Erhard tax abuse allegations were found to be baseless.) But I,
addresses her. “I’ve got respect for people,” he explains, for one, felt none the wiser about Erhard himself. Much
“but not old ladies.” of this is simply a result of Erhard’s demeanor in the film.
On one hand, he is frank and straightforward about the
past and offers clear explanations. Moreover, he refuses
to express any victimization over the slings and arrows of
Called everything from a his life circumstances, an impressive position in this age
twentieth-century genius to a of the tell-all bestseller. But there is also an intense and
disturbing stoicism about him that hints at a deeper and
snake oil charlatan, everyone still unresolved story.
had a strong opinion about Erhard currently lives in London and still travels the
globe leading seminars and working for individual and
just what kind of an angel or collective transformation, his focus more in Europe and
devil Werner Erhard was. Asia now than the United States. His care and commitment
are impressive, even if the scenes from his current semi-
nars feel less cutting-edge and his teaching style lacks
The film also makes it clear just how much the legacy some of the energy and fi re of his younger days. Indeed,
of EST has seeped into our cultural lexicon, pointing out the profound difference between the almost heroic com-
words and phrases that seem commonplace today but mitment to individual transformation he expressed in his
actually originated in the creative fires of this movement. early work and the dignifi ed but somewhat diminished
“Making a difference,” “empowerment,” ”transformation,” fi gure presented in the fi lm begs for deeper analysis. Such
and “coaching,” are just a few of the terms now in popular analysis is not forthcoming from Symon. And so the ques-
usage that were generated by or at least came of age in tion “What ever happened to Werner Erhard?” is answered,
Erhard’s work. but only partially. Symon should certainly be commended
Unfortunately, the second half of the documentary fails for taking on this diffi cult project and convincing Erhard
to live up to the tone set by the first. Whereas the film ini- to participate, but the deeper layers of the Werner Erhard
tially focuses on the creation and success of EST, it then mystery are untouched by this fascinating but ultimately
moves on to chronicle the difficulties in Erhard’s personal unsatisfying film.
life, including the ups and downs of his relationship with
Carter Phipps
the family he had left behind and the allegations of sexual
!"#$%&'%()*+,-#'.!/'01122233! 453"5!6222789"8."2:;
in one of his many essays reprinted in
Bricklin’s book. “The instant field of the
present is at all times what I call the
‘pure’ experience. It is only virtually
or potentially either object or subject
as yet. For the time being, it is plain,
unqualified actuality or existence, a
simple that.”
While James never claimed to be
enlightened—in fact, he claimed the
opposite, believing that his own “con-
stitution” precluded him from such an
exalted mystical realization—he did
SCIOUSNESS
taste a variety of religious experiences
Edited by Jonathan Bricklin
through the use of nitrous oxide, ether,
(Eirini Press, 2007, paperback $13.45)
peyote, and other drugs. Describing
one of his trips on ether, James said
The last couple of years have seen
that he experienced “a vague, limit-
a resurgence of interest in William
less, infinite feeling—a sense of
James, one of modern psychology’s
existence in general without the least
most widely respected pioneers. In
trace of distinction between the me
addition to new reprints of some of
and the not-me.” To Bricklin, such
his classic texts, an exhaustive biog-
personal glimpses of nonduality pro-
raphy detailed the ins and outs of his
vided James with a solid foundation
remarkable life as a scientist and phi-
for his theoretical talks and writings
losopher, while a book by a Pulitzer-
on sciousness—writings that did not
winning journalist told the story of
go unnoticed by one of Zen Buddhism’s
his avant-garde investigations into
early ambassadors to the West,
paranormal phenomena. But noth-
D.T. Suzuki. One of Suzuki’s teach-
ing has quite highlighted the depth of
ers, Kitaro Nishida, allegedly even
his thought like Jonathan Bricklin’s
appropriated James’s explanation
Sciousness.
of sciousness to help convey the Zen
What is “sciousness”? Bricklin
concept of tathata, the primary “such-
explains in his introduction to the
ness” of existence, to the Japanese
book that “James labeled conscious-
themselves. “For Zen’s ‘suchness’ or
ness-without-self ‘sciousness,’ and
‘this-as-it-is-ness,’” Bricklin notes, “is
consciousness-with-self ‘con-scious-
James’s pure experience sciousness.”
ness.’” For those up to speed on their
Structured as a collection of aca-
Buddhist philosophy, “consciousness-
demic essays, Sciousness begins with
without-self” (sciousness) is, of
the famous seventh-century Zen trea-
course, precisely how the Buddha
tise “On Believing in Mind,” followed
defined nirvana, the traditional goal
by a lengthy introduction to James’s
of spiritual seeking. Bricklin defines
notion of sciousness by Bricklin, which
it as a nondual state of enlightened
explores the idea’s parallels in Zen,
immediacy and wholeness in which
Advaita Vedanta, and other mystical
the usual distinction between self and
teachings. The rest of the book con-
other, knower and known, is dissolved.
sists of James’s classic essays from
Ordinary “con-sciousness,” on the
1904: “Does ‘Consciousness’ Exist?”
contrary, would be considered dualis-
“A Rustle of Wind,” “A World of Pure
tic, erroneously split down the middle
Experience,” and others, reprinted in
between a perceiving subject and the
their entirety and rounded off by an
world of objects being perceived.
excellent summary of James’s phi-
“Experience, I believe, has no
losophy by one of his close colleagues,
such inner duplicity,” writes James
Theodore Flournoy. Although James’s
May–July 2008 111
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essays are often rather dense, one brain and the transcendent experi-
does eventually sink into the rhythm of ence of the divine. Since that time, with
his early-twentieth-century style, tun- the development of our technological
ing in to the unique wavelength of his capacity to explore the structure and
thinking despite some hard-to-grasp function of the brain, neurotheology
concepts and arcane turns of phrase. has become a distinct field of scientific
According to Bricklin, James’s study dedicated to discovering the
philosophy of sciousness was biological and evolutionary basis for
attacked by many of his contempo- subjective spiritual experiences and
raries, with the notable exceptions beliefs. Having written three books
of like-minded supporters such as (including the bestseller Why God Won’t
Henri Bergson, John Dewey, and Go Away) and more than seventy-fi ve
Alfred North Whitehead. “Western articles, essays, and book chapters on
philosophers,” writes Bricklin, “could the relationship between the brain and
not accept the reality, let alone the spirituality, Dr. Andrew Newberg is
prime reality, of nondual experience.” considered one of the world’s leading
But revolutionary ideas always seem neurotheologians. In his latest book,
ahead of their time. And today, in the Born to Believe: God, Science, and the
age of evolutionary psychology and Origin of Ordinary and Extraordinary
biopsychology—which take a decid- Beliefs, Newberg teamed up with
edly dualistic (and materialistic) University of Pennsylvania colleague
approach to probing the mystery of Mark Robert Waldman to explore the
human consciousness—it’s striking to enigmatic connection between the
consider that, at least in some ways, brain and our deeply human “pro-
the “father of American psychology” pensity to believe.” They make the
may still be ahead of the curve. case that the reason why we believe
anything, from scientific truths to the
Tom Huston
existence of a higher power, can be
found in the synapses of our brains.
The book is split into three sec-
tions, first walking the reader through
the various ways in which beliefs
act as the brain’s “filters” for real-
ity, then discussing the process by
which these beliefs develop as we age,
and finally exploring how our beliefs
color the way we interpret spiritual
experiences.
Newberg and Waldman argue
that it is through our brains that we
determine what is real and true. In
order for us to believe anything that
is presented to us, it has to appear
BORN TO BELIEVE
accurate, feel right, make sense, and
God, Science and the Origin of Ordinary
jibe with what our culture tells us.
and Extraordinary Beliefs
This sense of realness, they suggest,
by Andrew Newberg, MD, and
is created by a complex combination
Mark Robert Waldman
of neurological functions in the brain.
(Free Press, 2007, paperback $15.00)
For example, the thalamus, amygdala,
and hippocampus are responsible
In his 1962 utopian novel, Island,
for regulating emotion, which is the
visionary author Aldous Huxley coined
primary way that we assign value and
the term “neurotheology” to describe
importance to any belief. According to
the mysterious relationship between
the authors’ research, our interpreta-
the cold, wet matter of the human
!"#$%&'%()*+,-#'.!/'011222334 563"6!7222489"89.2:;
tion of the realness of any event, from in the presence of God. The monks
a childhood memory to a spiritual experienced pure awareness. The
experience, depends largely on how Pentecostals had been touched by the
much emotion is attached to it. Holy Spirit. And the atheist was in a
Emotional value is not, of course, pleasurable altered state. Newberg
our only litmus test for reality. In the and Waldman attributed this result to
process of building a belief, our emo- the fact that during prayer, medita-
tional reactions are compared against tion, or speaking in tongues, the parts
a broader set of cognitive and social of the brain responsible for providing
criteria. Newberg and Waldman call subjective experiences with a sense
our cognitive functions the “real magi- of realness were highly activated.
cians of the brain” for their ability They drew the conclusion that through
to weave together and interpret our prayer and meditation, “the brain was
experience at both a conscious and providing a sense of reality for the
preconscious level. Without them we contents of specific beliefs, thereby
couldn’t count, read, make distinc- validating them.”
tions, or “see the forest for the trees.” On one hand, Born to Believe left
Even when we find something to be me with a much deeper understand-
emotionally and cognitively real, it ing of the ways that I draw conclu-
needs to be socially accepted for us to sions about what is real. Newberg and
finally decide that it is true. To high- Waldman shed light on just how con-
light the power of culture to shape ditioned and often biologically driven
belief, the authors cite several psycho- are many of the conscious and uncon-
logical studies in which individuals, in scious views we hold about the world.
the face of peer pressure, consistently On the other hand, I found their neu-
acted against what they knew to be rotheological perspective to be some-
obviously true. Newberg and Waldman what reductionistic in its bias toward
discuss how at different stages in a purely biological basis for belief. I
our development, different factors was left wondering whether they think
have a greater impact on our beliefs. there is anything more to belief than
As we mature from infancy through just what’s happening in the brain.
adolescence and into adulthood, the The authors do state consistently
roles that emotion and culture play in throughout the book that they are open
determining our beliefs become less to the possibility that the spiritual
influential as our cognitive capacities dimensions “the brain determines as
become more developed. real” might actually exist. And this
In the final section of the book, conciliation makes them unique—even
Newberg and Waldman use their revolutionary—among their neuro-
own original research to investigate scientific contemporaries. But as sci-
the relationship between beliefs and entists, their area of inquiry remains
spiritual experiences. They conducted limited to what can be measured in the
brain scans on meditating Buddhist physical world. Neurological research
monks, praying Franciscan nuns, may be an important part of the quest
Pentecostal Christians speaking in to understand the nature of reality, but
tongues, and an atheist meditating how much a deeper understanding of
on an image of God from the Sistine the brain’s function can tell us about
Chapel. Even though all of the sub- the subjective dimensions of the self is
jects described being connected with a question that neurotheology has yet
a dimension that was “more real” to answer. Whether or not you think it
than their everyday state of con- ever will, Born to Believe will challenge
sciousness, all of them interpreted you to take another look at why you
the meaning and significance of their believe what you do.
experience through the lens of their
Joel Pitney
previously held beliefs. The nuns were
May–July 2008 113
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NATURAL SELECTION
Make
a DIFFERENCE
in your life and world Ö
with an education from Unity Institute
Unity Institute offers three programs focusing on a core curriculum of scripture,

history and theology, spiritual development, and metaphysical teachings:
The Master of Divinity Certifi cate in Unity The Master of Arts
is a graduate-degree Ministry is a non- in Religious Studies
program emphasizing degree program for is a graduate-degree
the administrative, people interested in program for those
communication, and embarking on the seeking higher
pastoral skills necessary path to Unity ministry. spiritual education
for successful ministry but not necessarily a
and spirit-centered ENDURING LIVES
future in the ministry.
leadership. Living Portraits of Women and Faith in Action
By Carol Lee Flinders
In addition, our new distance-learning courses provide (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penquin, 2006,
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For more information, visit us online at ENDURING GRACE

www.unityinstitute.org/mrs/wie or 1901 NW Blue Parkway
contact the Unity Institute Registrar Unity Village, MO 64065-0001
Living Portraits of Seven Women Mystics
at 816-251-3535 or [email protected]. By Carol Lee Flinders
(HarperOne, 1993, paperback, $16.00)
When I heard that Carol Lee Flinders

had written a sequel to Enduring
RADICAL EVIL AND THE Grace, her classic book about female
SCARCITY OF HOPE Christian mystics, I was intrigued. I

had read Enduring Grace many years
Postsecular Meditations ago—it was published in 1993—and
still remembered the unique way in
which Flinders was able to bring to
Martin Beck MatuštÄ k
life several extraordinary, but often
Opens a way for hope, forgiveness, underappreciated, women mystics,
redemption, and love to spring from evil. all of whom lived between the Middle
Ages and the nineteenth century. Her
™ In a world filled with war, torture, and new book, Enduring Lives, promised
cruelty, where millions of people die to apply her unique literary talents
of diseases related to malnutrition or to women of our own age, and I was
inadequate health care each year, Martin eager to find out what this congenial
Beck MatuštÅ k' s book is an important writer might have to say about wom-
en’s spirituality in a more contempo-
and innovative inquiry into an age-old
rary context. Indeed, I was hopeful
problem.∫ – Rabbi Michael Lerner,
that Enduring Lives would be every bit
Tikkun as inspiring as Enduring Grace was
Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion when I first read it years ago.
1BQFSr$MPUI Thinking back to when I originally
read Enduring Grace, I remember
having been impressed by how coura-
800-842-6796
INDIANA University Press iupress.indiana.edu geous, even radical, the seven mys-
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tics were in their day. These women
Missing
cast aside the narrowly prescribed
roles for women in order to pursue
something?
their deepest longings, risking every- Is there something missing from your life? Are
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thing in order to know God, deeply, Spiritual Education and Enrichment (SEE) classes
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Yet their fearlessness was not simply formatsó on-campus, online, and throughout the
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about facing physical hardship. They spiritual growth goals, regardless of your faith
were resolute in facing the inner tri- or education.
als that often arise when one makes
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an absolute commitment, whether or call 816≠ 251≠ 3535.
it’s to the religious life or to any Summer on-campus sessions begin July 20, and
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Take Mechthild of Magdeburg,
for example. She lived in thirteenth-
century Germany at a time when a
wave of religious fervor was sweeping
through northern Europe. Not unlike
a flower child of the sixties, she aban-
doned the comfort of her family home
to join a revolutionary lay religious
movement known as the Beguines.
This loose collection of individuals
followed their own ideas about how to
live a committed religious life, inde-
pendent of rules or a saint at the helm
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or the approval of church authority.
Mechthild’s mystical writings, which
Flinders likens to “the free-form
Secret City Film Festival
spontaneity of a journal,” reflect
this independent streak and express “...a captivating cultural snapshot and not to be missed.”
an unusually feminine voice that is Ross Robertson What Is Enlightenment? Magazine
“authentic and idiosyncratic, incom-
KANSAS
parably passionate and lyrical.”
And then there’s the astonish-
vs.
ing story of Saint Catherine of Siena.
After three years of solitude during
DARWIN
which she eventually surmounted her
internal demons, she stepped into a
life of nonstop activity, literally. “She
slept, usually, about half an hour out The emotional story of the Kansas evolution hearings.
of the twenty-four,” Flinders reports,
Religion battles science, truth takes a dive.
and subsisted without eating for the
Available NOW on DVD!

last nine years of her life, we are told.
After tending to victims of the plague
that decimated Siena, Catherine
journeyed to Avignon in the south of
France to urge the Pope to return the Visit www.kansasvdarwin.com
May–July 2008 115
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NATURAL SELECTION
papacy to Rome. And, toward the end

of her life, she wrote, or more accu-
rately dictated, her magnum opus,
Dialogue. Composed while she was “in
an ecstatic state: three people worked
in tandem, writing as fast as they
could, to get it all down.” It is a com-
plex treatise of profound and subtle
mystical insights written in language
that is “earthy and concrete.”
Flipping back though the dog-
eared pages of my copy of Enduring
Grace, I am still struck by how these
gutsy women spoke to me across the
generations and emboldened me to
pursue my own deepest desires for a
life free from limitations. Their lives,
so convincingly portrayed by Flinders,
showed me that spiritual liberation
was a very real attainment, whatever
one’s gender. I would still highly rec-
ommend the book to anyone inter-
ested in women’s spirituality.
So what about Flinders’ new
book, Enduring Lives? Would it join
its predecessor on the bookshelf of
my favorites? The two books in many
ways are connected, in structure and
in content. Both chronicle the lives
of exceptional women who had the
strength of conviction to follow their
yearnings for a life of meaning and
purpose. In the first book, those
convictions played out against the
backdrop of a Christian-dominated
world far different from our own. In
her new book, her subjects inhabit
our more secular, multicultural
world, and except for the Dutch Jew
Etty Hillesum, who died at Auschwitz,
they are still alive today. The other
three women profiled in Enduring
Lives are world-famous primatologist
and environmentalist Jane Goodall;
Tibetan Buddhist nun Tenzin Palmo,
who is the subject of the popular
biographical book, Cave in the Snow;
and Roman Catholic nun and death-
row-inmate counselor Sister Helen
Prejean, subject of the movie Dead
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ITS
TIME TO
WAKE UP!
Man Walking. Flinders chose these inhabited, are perhaps less compa-
four women—she refers to them as rable than Flinders implies. Yes, it
“mystics-in-the-making”—precisely is true that all of the women in both
because they were “not religiously books, medieval and modern, share
iconic figures . . . about whom it strong spiritual and religious con-
could be said unequivocally that they victions, but Goodall, Palmo, and
are mystics.” Instead, she wanted Prejean are courageous activists
to show through the life stories of more than they are mystics or even
these contemporary women “a pro- proto-mystics. (Hillesum, on the other
found transformative process even hand, with her brief but profound
as it is still taking place,” and reveal “unity consciousness” that took hold
how their lives echoed those of the of her in the concentration camps, is
Enduring Grace women. Indeed, she probably best described as a mystic.)
often alludes to one or another of the Their lives are filled with a deep con-
earlier mystics as she describes the cern for equality and social justice,
lives of Palmo, Goodall, Hillesum, and or in Goodall’s case, preservation of
Prejean, finding similarities and reso- species—values characteristic of our
nances among them. postmodern world. In this sense, they
The profiles in Enduring Lives are are expressions of their own time
every bit as informative and intriguing and context in the same way that the
as those in Flinders’ original book. Enduring Grace women were expres-
Flinders’ skill at interweaving facts sions of theirs. Imagine for a moment JOURNEY INTO NOW
with her own sensitive interpretations that Flinders had profiled the medi-
CLEAR GUIDANCE ON THE PATH
of events is undiminished, and she eval mystics in light of these post-
OF SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
gives the reader a full picture of the modern values. Such a context would
context in which each woman is work- have diminished the extraordinary LEONARD JACOBSON
ing, explaining, for example, the more religious accomplishments of those
arcane aspects of Tenzin Palmo’s great women. Likewise, setting these With perfect precision,
Buddhist practice and Goodall’s contemporary women up as mystics- the author guides the
observations of the chimpanzees. Or, in-the-making, comparable to the
reader along a path of
when relating Sister Prejean’s journey great women saints of Christianity,
that took her deep inside a maximum seems to diminish somewhat the
awakening which leads to
security prison, Flinders does not nature and significance of their real liberation from the pain
hesitate to make diversions along the achievements, which in the end, are and limitations of the
way to amplify the story. It’s that kind as much social as they are spiritual. past into the joyful and
of narrative generosity that makes Despite these issues, Flinders’ unlimited world of Now;
Flinders’ biographies satisfying. passion for bringing to life the sto-
Each page of this book
Yet for all the richness of the life ries of extraordinary women is an
stories in Enduring Lives, the book achievement in and of itself. Her vivid
reveals a part of the
isn’t entirely a sequel to Enduring portraits enlarge the contours of what mystery; There are hidden
Grace. The kind of radical, vertical a woman’s life can be and provide keys to awakening on
relationship with God that infused all persuasive examples of women who every page; It is like a
of the mystics in Flinders’ original have overcome any sense of limita- road map home;
book and that gave that work such tion, whether internal or external. And
spiritual depth and power is missing most important, they encourage us to
ISBN: 978-1-890580-03-2
in the profiles of the contemporary pursue our own aspirations for a life
255 Pages, Hardcover
women. This is not to diminish their of deeper meaning, higher purpose,
pioneering lives or extraordinary and greater freedom.
NOW AVAILABLE AT
contributions. Rather, the two sets YOUR FAVORITE BOOKSELLER
Carol Ann Raphael
of women, and the worldviews they www; leonardjacobson; com
May–July 2008 117
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NATURAL SELECTION
It’s attributed to the seventh-century by many Arab women—and an impec-

Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib, one of the cable ear for the nuances of accent
most esteemed spiritual leaders after and voice, Raffo transforms in barely
Mohammad. This belief in women’s more than an instant from Amal, a fat
insatiable desire is part of the reason Bedouin longing for love, to Layal, a
that Islamic women wear the burka or glamorous artist, to Hooda, a whiskey-
the veil. Nine Parts of Desire, Heather swilling expatriate, until each of her
Raffo’s highly acclaimed one-woman nine women come alive within their
play, is not about veiling women’s bod- remarkably different circumstances.
ies; it is about revealing the shape A teenager, locked up for protection
NINE PARTS OF DESIRE of women’s souls—women who hap- in her home since the beginning of the
Written and performed by pen to be Iraqi. Raffo’s triumph, as a war, longs to meet American soldiers
Heather Raffo performer and playwright, is that by because they look like members of her
Directed by Joanna Settle using actual interviews with women to favorite pop group, ’N Sync. A doctor
(www.heatherraffo.com, available create nine composite portraits, she who has delivered another two-headed
on DVD for $18 on the site, first simultaneously reveals the extremity baby—one of a horrible variety of
performed in 2003) of the Iraqi situation and the universal genetic defects and cancers possibly
drive toward life and love. caused by depleted uranium in bul-
I count myself fortunate to lets—has just learned that she herself
In the Hadith, the texts that guide
have seen Raffo herself perform is pregnant. “Rada’s mother,” who no
Muslims in how to live, there is a cer-
at the Massachusetts Museum of longer uses her own name, haunts the
tain saying that intrigued me from the
Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) this ruins of a bomb shelter where several
moment I heard it: “God created sex-
past winter. With a flick and turn of thousand people, including all of her
ual desire in ten parts; then he gave
an abaya—the long dark cloth worn children, were mistakenly incinerated
nine parts to women and one to men.”
by a special American bunker-busting
double bomb. Weaving through these
powerful individual monologues are
the continuing stories of Hooda, the
intellectual living in London, and
Layal, the gorgeous artist living in a
wealthy section of Baghdad.
In the rapid pace and intensity of
the seventy-fi ve-minute show, Raffo
manages to do the impossible—
convey an overwhelming onslaught
of devastation and still transmit the
ultimate positivity of the human spirit.
Like some kind of smart bomb, the
images she evokes relentlessly bur-
row into your psyche: children wear-
ing bullets on a string like a necklace
or the shadowy outline of a woman
who was vaporized in a bombing.
And I am not mentioning the most
graphic events, because outside of
the context of the women’s lives,
they become almost lurid. To Raffo’s
credit, within the show they are not.
While she spares nothing and no
one, the play and her performance
are sobering and stark but not over-
wrought or heavy. From the mouths of
!"#$%&'%()*+,-#'.!/'011222334 563"6!422257!!7!3289
the women, the often-gruesome facts and knows that her country is falling
of their lives are the hard fl int against apart. She is tormented by the fact
which their spirit sparks into fl ame. that she cannot bring herself to leave
Raffo’s ability to walk into such the safety of London and try to make a
dark terrain and emerge with a human difference in Iraq. Layal, a prolific and
victory very likely has to do with her subtly subversive artist, cannot stand
intent in writing the play. As an Iraqi- Saddam’s sadistic regime—particu-
American, her goal was not political, larly the way that they have sexually
even though you learn a great deal abused and humiliated women. Yet to
about the complicated politics that ensure her own safety, she not only
leave all sides with unclean hands. compromises her art by agreeing to
Her website explains that she was create propaganda for the regime but
hoping to create a “dialogue between also has sex with high officials from
east and west,” in which “the audience the very regime that she detests. This
[would] see these women not as the fierce tenacity to survive, regardless
‘other’ but much more like themselves of the soul-level cost, does seem to be
than they would have initially thought.” a deep groove in the female psyche. It
Her characters speak directly to you, very likely has enabled this precari-
as though you were a trusted friend. ous adventure called civilization to
In an after-play discussion, Raffo told last for thousands of years. But I was
how one of the women whose story left wondering how different the world
appears in the play came to see it in might be—even the situation in Iraq—if
London. Experiencing the audience’s women were to direct their tremen-
wholehearted response, the woman dous life force toward something more
said, “I have always thought of myself than survival.
as an Arab woman, but now I real- Winner of the 2005 Susan
ize that I am a woman.” As a woman Smith Blackburn Prize Special
watching the play, I had a similar Commendation and a Lucille Lortel
experience of recognition. It struck Award for Outstanding Solo Show,
a chord at a fundamental level in my Nine Parts of Desire is an important
own consciousness. Within a context play with relevance beyond the trag-
of brutality that may be the osten- edy of Iraq. It deserves a wide audi-
sible responsibility of men—Saddam ence, which is why Raffo and director
Hussein, his sociopathic son Uday, Joanna Settle were artists-in-resi-
George W. Bush—the female response dence at Mass MoCA this past winter.
to that brutality is to survive at all They were redesigning the produc-
costs. As Raffo says, this is the “femi- tion to make it easy for schools and
nine strength [that is] a necessary part community groups to stage the play.
of any culture’s endurance.” Then, like Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina
In the time since I have seen Nine Monologues, which has been a focal
Parts of Desire, I found myself turn- point for political action among women
ing aspects of the play over and over on college campuses, Nine Parts of
in my mind. I know that I cannot say Desire could become a new rallying
what I would do under such horrific point for young women. This, at least,
circumstances, and yet I found myself is Raffo’s hope. And mine is that the
uneasy. It began to dawn on me how play will stimulate more than political
often the female characters compro- discussion and spur new conversa-
mise themselves in order to survive. tions on the necessity for women’s
This is particularly true of the two desire to be directed toward more
women whose stories are the core of than sex, safety, and survival.
the play. Hooda, the ex-patriate intel-
Elizabeth Debold
lectual, calls herself a revolutionary
May–July 2008 119
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Letters continued from page 14
creating the “shared inter- of designing the governing as “more advanced” holds
subjective space” that Andrew structure and founding docu- some danger of the kind of
Cohen proposes, and trans- ments that power might be elitism these writers men-
form that space into an inte- concentrated. Even there, tion. However, the problems
grated humanity as it grows it should be understood our world now has are not
and expands amongst us. I that the integral philosophy being treated very effec-
can’t imagine anything more specifically values broad sys- tively by existing governance
exciting, inspiring, and moti- temic understanding and the structures. I find McIntosh’s
vating to focus on at this time general good. insights to be a breath of fresh
in humanity’s evolution. I suppose any system that air in a very troubled sphere.
Janet Brown begins with a philosophical Ken Lebensold
Rockville, MD Issue 38 imperative that sees itself Mountain City, TN
Oct–Dec 2007
PEACE RULES IN DEFENSE OF MCINTOSH POEM FROM A READER

Discovering your publica- I was troubled to see two Submitted in response to Maura O’Connor’s article, “Freedom and
highly critical letters of the WIE Choice in Pornutopia: Why Girls Are Going Wild.”
tion has been a beacon of
light in dim surroundings interview with Steve McIntosh WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE?
and provided a wealth of (“Integral Politics Comes of
Anyone home?
mental fodder to chew. That Age,” Issue 38) in Issue 39. In
Mom is at yoga seeking enlightenment.
said, I must take exception to my view, these criticisms mis-
She looks great in her clothes.
Andrew Cohen’s conclusion read McIntosh and reflected
Dad is putting in long hours at work.
that “Peace Is Not the Answer.” their own worldview biases.
He finds release on porn sites.
While clearly the universe’s Billy Konrad’s letter’s third
Gramma & Gramps are in Las Vegas taking in the shows.
method of initiating evolution paragraph is a spirited critique
Maybe they will get lucky?
along lines of ever greater of U.S. actions in Iraq, none of
Big brother has retreated to his bedroom
orders of magnitude has been which were approved of in the
Downloading music on his ipod and flipping through
great and violent cataclysm, do interview. True, these were
magazines.
we not find it seeking an ever actions taken by the alleg-
Little sis knows the whole world is her oyster
more peaceful balance? As our edly “more advanced” U.S.
and crashes her website when posting her first orgasm
consciousness ascends from governmental structure, but
for all to see from the loneliness of her room.
instinct to emotion to thought McIntosh never asserted that
Arloene Burak
to spirit, with each higher level this more advanced struc-
Cobble Hill, BC
holding its subordinate hos- ture somehow guaranteed
tage, does it not develop ever against grave error. If it did, he
greater dimensions of peace wouldn’t need to advocate for a
from one level to the next? new, integral structure.
While God may use vio- Colin Donoghue’s letter
lence as a tool in the evolution- charges McIntosh with advo-
ary process, I believe we will cating for the concentration Correction: In Issue 39 (Feb-Apr ‘08), p.16, we stated that
SuperConsciousness magazine was produced by the team behind the
find more evidence that Divine of power in an elite group of
film What the Bleep Do We Know?! While both of these groups draw
Purpose tends more toward “superior” people, and com- inspiration from J.Z. Knight and Ramtha, they are unaffiliated.
peace over time, and that those pares this concept with histori-
who wish to fight on the cal and present abuses of such
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS: pp.11, 87-90, 93, 95; photos of Deepak Chopra,
side of Purpose will do so power. As I understand it, how-
courtesy of Deepak Chopra; p.86, photo of Deepak Chopra, courtesy of
with ideas and strategies born ever, part of his vision is to give Chopra Center; pp. 12, 28, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, courtesy of Maharishi
of the peaceful minds and spir- individual societies expanded University of Management; p. 22, Sri Aurobindo, courtesy of Sri Aurobindo
Ashram; p. 32, illustrative impressions of “Cradle to Cradle” designs,
its of evolved consciousness. self-rule, except on matters of
Floriade 2012 BV; p.67, The Invisible Texture of the Universe, Millennium
Joshua S. grave concern to the rest of Run, Volker Springel, et al., Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics, 2004; p.
via email the world. It is only at the level 71, Spherical Representation, courtesy of Nancy Abrams and Joel Primack.
May–July 2008 121

Peter Ragnar on Health
The Exercise Elixir

America was said to be the melting in the world, as was Charles Atlas. ninety-eight-pound weakling into
pot of the whole world, with so many I don’t know if you’re old enough to a fit, strong, healthy, and enduring
different nationalities and cultures remember those advertisements fleshly entity. Didn’t I say endur-
arriving at the same time. Many where a scrawny ninety-eight-pound ing? Superman isn’t supposed to get
brought their love of physical cul- weakling gets sand kicked in his face old and die, yet even strongmen do.
ture, exercise, and feats of strength at the beach. I’m assuming the adver- However, it certainly gives you a lot of
here, and my family was no excep- tiser had Coney Island in mind. That confidence to think that a person can
tion. I can remember my grandfa- was where the Mighty Atom and others become this strong and maintain it
ther lifting dumbbells on the roof competed with one another for titles into their eighties. Being a pre–baby
of our apartment building between and recognition. boomer myself, I’ve followed the
clotheslines adorned with drying Greenstein was called the Mighty Mighty Atom’s example and performed
clothes. Some immigrants even Atom because he was only 5 feet various feats of strength. I can still
became famous for their fitness and 4½ inches and never weighed more bend horseshoes and steel spikes
strength. So you see, I got an early than 145 pounds. Yet just imagine and roll a bar of steel around my arm
taste of the exercise elixir from any of the other hulking strongmen into a bracelet, and I recently pinch
some pretty powerful examples. of his time (or of today) curling and gripped seven barbell plates on the
I didn’t know it at the time, but then pressing a barbell weighing smooth side that weighed a total of 160
Joseph Greenstein lived on East 96th 163 pounds with one hand, but—get pounds. I also did 2,000 parallel bar
Street in Brooklyn. I lived on West 41st this—by just gripping the weight with dips in eighty minutes. It sort of gives
Street. New York in the 1940s seemed only the middle finger! Or how about you the feeling that nothing is impos-
to be the center of the golden age of this: holding back a 150-horsepower, sible for a person if only they put their
strongmen, and Greenstein seemed to single-engine airplane with his hair! mind to it. As you’ve probably guessed,
be the best of them all. Better known He could also bite chains in half, bend I’m also an advocate of radical life
as the Mighty Atom, he was billed as horseshoes, roll bars of steel around extension. I believe we have yet to tap
the world’s strongest man. Can you his arm as if they were copper wire, the limits of our life span. Is exercise
imagine that as the years passed, the and so much more. an elixir that can add years to your life
Mighty Atom’s strength stayed? He Well, I was fascinated with how and life to your years?
was still performing feats of strength to mold my body from the proverbial A massive study was conducted at
into his mid-eighties. Was exercise Harvard University to answer just such
some type of elixir? Could exercise a question. Dr. Ralph Paffenbarger and
promote mind power that could turn his colleagues studied 17,000 male
ordinary humans into supernatural Harvard alumni to find out. Here are
phenomena? their conclusions: Those who burned
My grandfather worked on a con- only 500 calories a week on exercise
struction project at Coney Island, so I had the highest death rate. Those who
got to visit the boardwalk a lot. There burned 1,000 calories per week—that’s
you’d find Warren Lincoln Travis, who like walking fi ve to ten miles a week—
was also billed as the strongest man had a twenty-two percent lower mor-
tality risk. However, if you engaged in
intense exercise, working out from fi ve
to ten hours a week and burning up to
PETER RAGNAR is a natural life scientist,
modern-day Taoist wizard, and self-master par 3,500 calories, the research concluded
excellence. A martial arts practitioner for over that you had a whopping fifty-four per-
fifty years, he is renowned for his teachings on
optimal health and longevity. He is the author cent improvement in longevity!
of twenty books, including The Art and Science Perhaps, in part, this startling
of Physical Invincibility.
statistic is due to the fact that exer-
cise burns up free fatty acids for
!"#$%&'%()*+,-#'.!/'011222344 563"6!722258!!8!.29:
eighty percent of the calories used in range, they don’t need to exercise,
a workout. Exercise also increases but they’re mistaken. People who
your metabolic rate, so you don’t have have high blood pressure yet are on
to worry as much about your caloric a regular exercise program have a
intake. Exercise feels good because statistically higher life expectancy
it releases stress and tension. In than those in the normal range who
today’s concrete jungles, it’s socially don’t exercise regularly. Both their
unacceptable to physically attack your systolic (that’s the high number) and
business adversaries, coworkers, or diastolic pressures will drop with
boss. However, there is nothing stop- exercise—without taking any drugs
ping you from attacking the weights in for hypertension.
the gym or hitting the pavement and Either way, you’ll probably want
grinding out some miles. Exercise is to know that this isn’t just puffery or
the greatest alternative when the bells a sales job to get you into the gym.
and whistles of your body signal fight- Exercise produces real, lasting bio-
or-flight reactions to stressful stimuli. logical benefits. The systolic blood
This is because exercise normal- pressure of yours truly hasn’t been
izes brain chemistry and calms your over one hundred in years, and my
nerves by releasing endorphins. And resting pulse is forty-two. But I’ve
that means you don’t have to crack got an advantage: I’ve got more than
the cap on those medications so many half a century of workouts under my
people take to combat anxiety and belt, and I just now feel I’m hitting
depression. Do you want to sleep more my stride. I plan on being in better
soundly? Then exercise. Do you want shape than Jack Lalanne when I blow
to remove toxins and heavy metals through ninety-two. How about you?
from your body? Then exercise. You see, it isn’t the hot dogs at
Did you know that the lactic acid Nathan’s I remember at Coney Island
that builds up with hard workouts (haven’t had one—well, maybe one
actually binds to toxins and heavy met- or two—since I was a kid), and it isn’t
als, flushing them out of your body? so much the beach. It is the amaz-
It’s estimated that there are more ing human potential displayed on
than forty million adults in the United the boardwalk in the golden age of
States who are otherwise healthy strongmen that planted the seed in
but are sitting around on their butts, my young mind, a seed that sprouted
thinking they don’t need a regular and grew and inspired me to seek
exercise program. However, health excellence in all areas of life. And if
care statistics are increasingly show- Superman for some ridiculous reason
ing this to be a falsity. It’s believed that doesn’t live forever, at least I hope
over a quarter of a million people die an indelible mark of one improved
each year because they lack a regular human unit will be left as a reminder.
exercise program. If you don’t exer- So, then, let us toast life with the
cise, you are twice as likely to experi- exercise elixir and seek to steal the
ence myocardial infarction or die from fire of the gods.
coronary heart disease as those who
work out. Learn more about the amazing life
Some folks think that because and work of Peter Ragnar at
their blood pressure is within normal wie.org/ragnar
May–July 2008 123
!"#$%&'%()*+,-#'.!/'011222345 563"6!722258!!8!92:;
Enlightenment for the 21st Century
Raising the Bar
by Andrew Cohen
FOR A LONG TIME NOW in the postmodern spiritual marketplace, Hindu, it is assumed that one’s faith would be demonstrated in and
something very strange has been going on. In this postconventional, through the very life one is living. Just because one may not be living
post-traditional arena, where spirituality is, more often than not, as a renunciate sannyasin, it doesn’t mean that one is not expected
made to order for the individual, where it’s every man or woman on to be a full-bodied expression of faith or even have the capacity to
the path for him- or herself, many of us find ourselves exploring the become a deeply realized God-man or God-woman. And if one is a
innermost reaches of our own consciousness in the midst of some committed Buddhist (at least in the East), even if one is not a monk,
truly dubious assumptions. it is expected that one’s faith in one’s chosen spiritual path be mani-
One really weird assumption that most folks seem to have is that fested through generosity, kindness, compassion, and nonattach-
it is reasonable for there to be an enormous gap between, on the one ment. In other words, a religious or spiritually committed individual
hand, what we experience when Spirit speaks to us as soul-stirring is supposed to look like something specific!
revelation, overwhelming bliss, penetrating clarity, ineffable peace, For those of us who have taken that leap from a traditional reli-
and beatitude and, on the other, the way we live our so-called per- gious context to a post-traditional spiritual orientation, why should it
sonal lives. Like I said, really weird! make sense for that same expec-
The problem is that we’re living in tation not to apply? I might even
a time and a cultural context in which,
for the most educated among us, what
There should be a direct add that in our own cultural cli-
mate of hyper-individualism and
higher spiritual development is actu- correlation between our autonomy at all costs, it may be
ally supposed to mean and what post- more important than ever to make
conventional ethical behavior should highest experiences of the effort to define what authentic
look like remain vague and undefined. spiritual practice and attainment
Too often, the notion of being expected revelation and the reality are supposed to look like.
to hold oneself to higher standards or
spiritual “laws” is held suspect. Some of the lives that we live. Maybe the spiritual path is
less about personal experience
actually consider it to be an inhibitor of and more about change. Indeed,
spiritual freedom rather than a clear it might be an appropriate time to
indicator of genuine attainment. And this is understandable because expect more results and higher dividends from our own spiritual
most of us at the leading edge who are pursuing higher development practice and experience than most of us currently do. Maybe we
outside of a traditional context are doing so without any maps indicat- need to consider what the effect would be if as many of us as pos-
ing what it’s supposed to look like. sible dramatically lessened the enormous gap that exists between
Even before I became a spiritual teacher, it seemed obvious to the inner and the outer.
me that there should be a direct correlation between our deepest I don’t believe that the clarity and liberation of mystical insight
philosophical convictions, our highest experiences of insight and is a free ride. I am convinced that the awakening of the spiritual
revelation, and the reality of the lives that we live in public and in impulse in our own hearts and minds is actually an evolutionary
private—“in the world,” as they say. As long as this is not the case, trigger—an urgent whisper from the Self to Itself, God’s quiet voice
then whatever we think we are doing in our spiritual endeavors imploring us to relinquish our attachment to our culturally condi-
couldn’t really be adding up to anything of enduring significance. tioned ignorance, our materialism, and our pathological narcissism.
Any serious Christian is expected to act like a Christian, to dem- Why are we being called? So we will take responsibility for the evo-
onstrate generosity of spirit, a high moral standard, humility, and lution of our own consciousness and culture, publicly, in such a way
submission to a power higher than one’s own ego. If one is a “good” that raises the bar for all of us at the leading edge.
Jew, it’s expected that one’s life and the way it is lived will be an
expression of God’s law, a manifestation of the Torah in action. What Explore all of Andrew Cohen’s WIE articles,
that’s supposed to look like has been defined in exacting detail by audios, and videos online at
countless learned rabbis for thousands of years. If one is a devout wie.org/cohen
Andrew Cohen, founder and editor in chief of What Is Enlightenment?, has been a spiritual teacher since 1986 and is the author of numerous books,
including Living Enlightenment and Embracing Heaven & Earth. He is currently at work on a new book, Evolutionary Enlightenment. For more
information, visit andrewcohen.org

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www.wie.

WELCOME TO THE CENTER OF THE

Atheists with Attitude

And the elixir of exercise 0 7 447 0 87 67 6 2 4 0

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Editor in Chief Contributing Editors Proofreaders

What Is Enlightenment? is published quarterly by EnlightenNext, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.

What Is Enlightenment? Issue 40, May-July 2008

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The Universe Needs

Dear friends, readers, and supporters of What Is Enlightenment?,

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interpret every dimension of our for as many people as possible,

➜ The Universe Project

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EnlightenNext is embarking on a yearly cycle of spiritual

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Thank you to our generous business sponsors:

P.S. EnlightenNext, publisher of WIE, is

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www.fallingfruit.tv www.braleywellingtongroup.com www.piercebroscoffee.com

5deep integral Thomson-Shore, Inc. C.G. Blacktop, Inc.

A View from the

Living in the Dark

The Mythic Life and

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THE GURU AND THE PANDIT

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letters continued on page 121

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01_TOC_i40_new.indd 16 3/19/08 3:34:59 PM

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Kudos to RICHARD DAWKINS for standing up and crying foul

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Speaking of contentious through a spiritual lens and then

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The Lake Wobegon Effect 94%

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Tuscany, Italy Aug. 1≠ 10 Creating the Culture of the Future:

Information and registration:

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MAHARISHI MEDITATING AT HIS 85 TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION, JANUARY 12, 2002

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

“Invincibility is irreversibly established in the world.

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These artist’s impressions

Cradle to Cradle design has been

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