Swimme’s Cosmogenesis

Mathematician and integral studies professor Brian Swimme presents the cosmology of a creative universe—cosmogenesis—in which human consciousness plays an essential role. He views the evolution of the universe toward greater complexity and consciousness as “the ultimate aim of the universe.” It is a creative universe that develops through time from plasma to galaxies to living planets to human consciousness, “a universe that can intend something even before human consciousness emerges” (Swimme, 2022).

Swimme bases his ideas on the teachings of Thomas Berry, a Catholic priest, cultural historian, and world religion scholar, who spoke of “the spirituality of the universe,” using “the word ‘spirituality’ to correct a deformation in modern consciousness, that imagined the existence of a ‘physical universe.’” Such a conception no longer made sense, Berry said, because in the 20th century, “we discovered that the matter of this universe—the only matter we know of—constructs life. There is no such thing, then, as ‘lifeless matter.’ Matter, in its very structure and dynamism, generates life.” Consciousness, then, is built into the fundamental fabric of the universe. What will happen, Swimme asks, “when we turn our consciousness around and realize that our awareness of cosmogenesis is also the work of the universe? How will we change when we face the universe and find the universe facing us?” (Swimme, 2022).