During the four centuries of modern science, the dominant image of the Universe has been that of a machine. Breakthroughs in quantum physics, mathematical cosmology, evolutionary biology, and complexity science enable us to see more deeply into the functioning of the Universe.

This week, you’ll explore the “mind” of the Universe in its vast and evolving complexity… a self-organizing intelligence in which each being participates directly in cosmological intelligence.

Brian will share how as your understanding of this form of cosmic intelligence deepens, your ability to participate in it grows stronger.

You’ll also learn how from the emergence of self-reflection to the invention of symbolic languages, humans have been building their creative capacities for bringing forth a new form of cosmological intelligence — a noosphere, or planetary mind — and a unified humanity.

This week, you’ll explore:

• The nature of the self-organizing dynamics of the Universe that govern all levels of our lives — and how relationships in their most primordial form activate the self-organizing dynamics of life and Universe
• How the invention of the membrane enabled life to emerge — and how this can assist us in our own creative work
• How the domestication of fire accelerated human evolution by a factor of 100,000
• Why the development of symbolic languages led to the inevitable takeover of the planet
• The dire need for a new self-image for every human being — moving from the context of the nation-state to that of the evolving Universe
• Guided experiences to feel the peace of surrendering to the cosmic powers that are building you — and to enhance your creative project by exploring yourself as a physical and psychic membrane

Where does your creativity come from and how can you nurture it more fully?

Explore the human power of creativity and how it connects with cosmological intelligence this week through the ideas of “continuous creation” as presented by Evelynn Underhill and M. D. Chenu — and Teilhard de Chardin’s “Cosmic Christ” archetype.

Matthew will share how continuous creation and the Cosmic Christ are also connected in interesting ways.

You’ll also learn how the Cosmic Christ archetype is the oldest Christology in Christianity, 300 years older than the Nicene Creed… and consider why it’s also symbolically found in other religions, including Buddhism (the “Buddha nature”) and Judaism (Tselem or image of God).

This week, you’ll:

• Learn how creation is always happening — and how humans are integral to it
• Explore the ongoing creativity of the Universe and of humanity
• Discover how divinity is always being born in the Universe
• Learn why cosmic intelligence is not divorced from cosmic love
• Experience how Meister Eckhart and other mystics speak to these realities

One of the most surprising discoveries in 20th century biology is how chimpanzees and humans are nearly identical at the level of the DNA. Our genetics are 99% the same.

Yet, the evolutionary differences are astounding. Chimpanzees over the last 10 million years haven’t changed or moved from their habitat in equatorial Africa…

… while humans over the past 100,000 years have invented symbolic language, learned the biology of their bodies, built 10,000 cities, flown to the moon, constructed libraries all around the planet — and created a network of communication that puts an individual human in potential contact with every other human around the planet.

You’ll explore what differentiates chimpanzees from humans this week, including the human capacity to create what has been called “a brain of brains” — the noosphere.

Brian will also share how as humans spread over the surface of Earth, humanity stayed anatomically the same by inventing tools that enabled it to acclimate to new biomes…

… and how this whole network spanning across planet Earth can be considered the emergence of Earth’s nervous system.

This week, you’ll discover:

• The unique feature of Homo sapiens — an ability to navigate the challenges of life by inventing tools that enable its anatomy to remain the same
• Why the primary power of story is its ability to create community
• How each human is born in a mind that has been developing for 200,000 years 
• Interconnections of humans around the planet as the emergence of a planetary nervous system
• How symbolic language determined the success of human trade
• Early examples of noospheres — the animals that built versions of a “brain of brains”
• Guided experiences to witness the painting that took place in caves all over the planet — and imagine the chaos that would ensue if 50,000 chimpanzees were put into a football stadium versus 50,000 humans

This week, you’ll explore your place on the Earth and in the Universe through two humbling, mesmerizing, and elegantly described glimpses from space.

The first are the pictures astronauts took of Earth from space and their rediscovery that the Earth is not divided by countries… such divisions are man-made.

Second are the pictures beamed back to Earth more recently from Voyager 1, a satellite that has now left our solar system. The pictures show Earth as a tiny dot in a vast space.

Matthew will share how precious and valuable that dot on which all of us live and all of our ancestors lived is. And, how it’s in jeopardy because of our species — and the climate change and extinction events we are causing.

You’ll also explore Thomas Berry’s notion that what will save the Earth is humanity recovering a sense of the sacred… and gain valuable insights on how to do that.

This week, you’ll:

• Explore Mary Oliver’s words on the astonishment and holiness of everyday experiences in nature and creation
• Discover holiness all around you through the recovery of the sacred
• Unpack Jesus’ and Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching that the “kingdom of God” is among you and within you
• Discover the noosphere as the kingdom of God
• Learn why recovering the sacred is necessary for saving the planet as we know it
• Experience the photography of Courtney Milne, which depicts the sacred places around the Earth — and in his backyard

Homo sapiens began as just another primate species. The invention of symbolic language altered the dynamics of life… and enabled us to accumulate knowledge beyond what’s already present in the DNA.

This week, Brian will share how symbols enable us to enter into the lives of one another in a way that’s not possible for other animals.

You’ll discover how sharing our hopes and dreams… telling one another the story of our lives… and inventing tools that can be shared by other humans helps us become more deeply bonded and unified.

Brian will also explain how this power to relate to one another with depth has united the hunter-gatherers — and built villages, then cities, then civilizations, and now a unified humanity that encircles the Earth.

This week, you’ll:

• Explore the evolving mind of the noosphere by considering the entire history of information storage
• Discover the 100,000-year experiment that strongly suggests Homo sapiens have a natural pattern of ontogenetic development
• Learn the answer to the question of why humans dragged huge stones weighing many tons to assemble Stonehenge
• Explore the James Webb Space Telescope as the invention of the noosphere
• Discover how humans are constructing culture that enables us to see the emergence of the noosphere as a one-time event
• Explore the primary intellectual move of the noosphere in the invention of transportation from Asia to Australia
• Discover guided experiences to imagine yourself at the “bottom of the planet” — and to gain a visceral understanding of the movement of the Sun

Meaning returns when an inspired vision is shared. The noosphere, or Cosmic Christ/Buddha nature/image of God, is such a vision.

This week, you’ll explore how recovering the archetype of the Cosmic Christ and noosphere can birth a renaissance and a new civilization.

You’ll explore historian M. D. Chenu’s definition of a renaissance — a rebirth of civilization based on a spiritual initiative.

You’ll also consider elements of culture and civilization and how they must change, including education (from knowledge-based to wisdom-based)… play and creativity as a primary value… deep ecumenism and spirituality as distinct from religious competition… and the importance of rituals to grieve and to celebrate our common aspirations.

This week, you’ll:

• Explore what a 21st-century renaissance looks like through the return of wisdom and meaning, reimagining education, and applying healthy masculine and feminine energies to education — and 4 ways in which wisdom differs from Knowledge
• Learn why play and creativity are becoming primary values
• Discover how spiritual practices can calm the reptilian brain
• Learn how deep ecumenism can convert religion to spirituality — and to sharing, not competing
• Explore how rituals can come alive and hasten the reunion of psyche and cosmos, wonder and gratitude, science and spirituality

Brian and Matthew teach side-by-side in the final class to summarize previous classes and pose the question: What follows when postmodern science meets up with premodern and postmodern wisdom and mystical teachings?

You’ll explore the shadow side of religion and of science and how you can prepare yourself to face them…

… and how a new kind of holiness is required if humanity is to survive and allow Mother Earth as we know her in all her diversity to flourish.

You’ll also discover the power that stories have — such as the gospels, the Vedas, and the United States Constitution — which can be considered a transgenetic form of information, to unite formerly fragmented communities.

Brian and Matthew will share how a new comprehensive story is emerging in human consciousness by looking to the empirical details of how life and consciousness began…

… how the primordial plasma developed into stars and galaxies and how, on at least one planet, life and consciousness surfaced.

Lastly, you’ll look inward to source the answer on what is needed for a new story to help bring forth a unified humanity.

This week:

• Consider where you and the collective go from here as we begin to consciously create the noosphere and the next step for humanity
• Discover holiness as a response to the reality of evil (Heschel)
• Explore the noosphere and a new understanding of holiness
• Learn how to convert the “dark night” into something positive
• Discover your neotenic nature and how it’s the root of all significant creativity
• Learn how the noosphere offers each person the opportunity to become a person who never could have come forth in previous centuries

Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
Video Teaching From Matthew Fox

In this insightful 2-hour video teaching and Q&A, Matthew discusses his book Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations. The daily readings Matthew shares — quotations from Christianity’s greatest mystics and prophets from the past 2,000 years — speak to the sacredness of the earth, awe and gratitude, darkness and shadow, compassion and creativity, sacred sexuality, and peacemaking. A range of figures are quoted, including Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther King Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Nikolai Berdyaev, Mechtild of Magdeburg, and Nana Veary.

Cosmic Creativity in the Form of a Human Being
PDF Guide to the Exploration of the Universe From Brian Thomas Swimme

A necessary step for escaping ecological and political violence is to experience our common humanity. Such convergence will not come from a new doctrine or a new theory, as Brian’s thought-provoking 7-page PDF attests. Humanity will enter its integral form when it finds common experiences of the Universe. One pathway into this universal experience is to understand that scientific theory can be used as a pathway to experience the unfolding Universe. Brian illustrates this movement of consciousness from theory to experience with two examples.