Part 2
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CONSCIOUSNESS: Teilhard stresses a sense of building-up, of an
accumulation of a cosmic reflective nature. He puts it thus: "Under
the free and ingenious effort of succesful intelligences, *something*...
irreversibly accumulates...and is transmitted, at least collectively
by means of education, down the course of ages."
On earth, the human person, individually, and mankind collectively
represent cosmic consciousness at its present stage of development.
Teilhard declares "man as a definite turning point,* an upgrading of
the cosmic process towards consciousness. But he does NOT consider man
separate from Nature. "Man emerged from a general groping of the world.
He was born a direct lineal descendent from a total effort of life, so
that the species has an axial value and a pre-eminent dignity."
Teilhard believes that man may be pivotal in this cosmogenic outreach
towards greater consciousness. Humankind collectively, says Teilhard,
is in a "state of continuous additive growth, in numbers and inter-
connections." It is becoming more "tightly concentrated upon itself."
Teilhard calls for a push toward a new dimension of cosmic reality. He
calls for the human collectivity to erect a "sphere of mutually
reinforced consciousness, the seat, support and instrument of super-vision
and super-ideas." Mankind has to build the noosphere!
Optimistic, Teilhard believes that the human collectivity has already
made some progress towards achieving the construction of the noosphere.
Teilhard puts it thus: "In every past generation true seekers, those by
vocation or profession, are to be found, but in the past they were no
more than a handful of individuals, generally isolated, and of a type
that was virtually abnormal. But today...in fields embracing every
aspect of physical matter, life and thought, the research workers are to
be numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and they no longer work in
isolation but in teams endowed with penetrative powers. Research...is
in process of becoming a major, indeed the principal, function of
humanity." Teilhard definitely believes that humanity is "cerebralizing"
itself, and slowly but surely building the noosphere, which for him
is a "stupendous thinking machine."
If a successful noogenesis comes to fullness, it will move and have its
being within that greater dimension of reality: the Cosmic Apex.
THE COSMIC APEX: Teilhard has a repository of labels for this greater
dimension of reality: super-soul, the hyper-personal, the Evolutionary All,
and the Omega Point.
Teilhard expresses himself poetically about the cosmic apex: "Omega, He
towards whom all converges, is concurrently He from whom all radiates.
Impossible to place him as a focus at the summit of the universe, without
at the same time diffusing his presence in the intimate heart of the
smallest movement of evolution." Teilhard believes that this most
mysterious of the cosmic energies is the "attraction which is exercised
upon each conscious element by the center of the universe." This is
indeed the attraction "In Whom all things hold together."
What or Who is this Cosmic Center, this Universal Attractor? Teilhard's
feeling is that at the "head of Cosmogenesis there stands a Pole, not
simply of attraction but of *consolidation.*" It is an "inclusive Center
in which everything is gathered together...with the power to grow greater,
without distortion or loss of continuity."
For Teilhard, the Cosmic Apex is Holy Intelligence!
COSMIC CHARACTERISTICS: There are certain characteristics that can be
discerned from Teilhard's cosmic model. They are Order, Intelligence,
Personalization, Creativity, and a sense of Holiness.
Teilhard considers that order underlies the form and movement of the cosmic
process. He believes that a special cosmic energy holds the All together,
and that this cosmic energy follows a cosmic law. Teilhard calls this
universal law the Cosmic Law of Complexity-Consciousness. Teilhard's law,
incorporated within his perceptions of geological and biological evolution,
encompasses an organic cosmic evolution (and involution) which is
proportionately correlative with an increase in consciousness (interiority).
Now there is *something* that drives the cosmic process. Teilhard calls
it an Intelligence. He considers cosmic intelligence to be that
"growth of powers of *foresight and invention,* prompting and guiding
a planned rebound of evolution." Intelligence, for Teilhard, is free
and ingenious, it is something that is transmitted and accumulated.
Teilhard believes that the level of conscious intelligence is steadily
rising...particularly by means of the human brain. Teilhard declares
that this is a universe that is acquiring a personality!
Inferring that there is a fundamental cosmic intelligence, Teilhard puts
it thus: "From the moment when Evolution (the evolving cosmos) begins to
think itself it can no longer live with or further itself except by
knowing itself to be irreversible...an irreversible rise towards the
*personal.*"
Teilhard demonstrates through the collective transformations of the
evolving cosmos that progress towards individualization has taken place.
"The more highly each phylum became charged with psychism, the more it
tended to granulate. The animal grew in value in relation to the species.
Finally at the level of man the phenomenon gathers new power and takes
definite shape. With the human person, endowed by personalization...the
cell has become *someone.*"
Evolution, however, is an ascent towards higher and higher complexity and
consciousness. Teilhard believes that there is more...that there is more
beyond man. Teilhard claims there is a kind of resonance, a resonance
to the All. He claims that there seems to be an "expectation and
awareness of a *Great Presence.* Like the genetic coding of the plant,
animal, or human, it is as if there is coded into the cosmos the intuited
promise of its ultimate form, its *Ahead,* its Personhood.
Theoretically, for Teilhard, there is a *Knower*...a cosmic Knower, a
cosmic Person, a cosmic Player felt to be one with all that is known.
This cosmic Knower is pure energy. It is Intelligence. It is Conscious.
It is a Person. This Knower, according to Teilhard, is also creative!
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Beatrix Murrell // murrell@netcom.com
RestonScholar Alternatives Research