Essay: How Does The Universe Work?

How Does The Universe Work?

One of the basic tenets of the Grand Theory is that everything in the Universe is alive. That means that everything, including oceans, mountains, trees, bacteria, etc. is self-actuating, self-sustaining and self-fulfilling. The Universe clearly knows what She is doing. She has had a plan and a purpose for a very long time – 13.7 billion years -- and what has evolved is way beyond our human measuring and comprehension. So doesn’t it make sense, that self-reflecting creatures ought to examine how the Universe has operated in the past, learn what her dynamics are and then join her community of subjects by becoming those dynamics in human form?

The gift that the Universe has given to humans is an emerging sense of consciousness. This is not to deny that other earthly creatures are conscious and that there could possibly be other creatures somewhere in the Universe that are more aware than we are. But it does seem logical to deduce that the human role in the Universe ought to flow from and be connected to their consciousness. The great psychologist, Carl Jung, came to this conclusion at about the same time that Einstein developed his theory of relativity. Here is what he wrote: “Human consciousness created objective existence and meaning, and human beings found their indispensable place in the great process of being, (which is)… to put the stamp of perfection on the world by giving it objective existence.” What Jung is saying is that the absolutely necessary task of humans on this planet is to assist the Universe to become aware of Herself.

What do you think about that? All that is asked of you is to meander about creation seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and expressing the sentiments of Yes! There it is! Look at it! Awesome! Thank You! And believe it or not, you even get paid for doing it. Like all provident parents, Mother Nature has provided for all human beings a generous irrevocable trust. Annually the trust generates for every American approximately $25,000 in dividends from the regenerative assets of sun, water, air, soil, trees, grasses, plants, animals, fish, fowl, etc.. That’s a big paycheck for only expressing Yes! Awesome! Thank You! By being creative and acting out that mantra is how we become the dynamics of the Universe in human form.

So what are these dynamics specifically? Brian Swimme, a mathematical cosmologist who teaches at the CA Institute of Integrated Studies in San Francisco wrote a fundamental book on this issue with Thomas Berry titled The Universe Story. He has carefully and creatively described a number of the more obvious dynamics of the Universe. He starts with gravity, a subject that scientists have studied more thoroughly than any other. Besides gravity there are other forces in the Universe that bond things together – relativity, the strong-weak forces and electro-magnetic forces. Collectively Swimme names them Allurement. We know what these bonding factors do, but how they work and where they originate we don’t fully understand. For example, we walk around on a sphere that is spinning through space at about 100,000 miles per hour but something invisibly but certainly prevents us from flying off the Earth. What is that? Why is that?

Physicists tell us that every object in the Universe is drawn, attracted, connected to every other object. We see this most obviously when we study the starry sky – trillions upon trillions of immense heavenly bodies dancing at incredible speeds and inconceivable distances, attracted to one another yet respecting each other’s space. Why is it that a star like our sun, 330,330 times larger than our Earth, 93 million miles away, consumes 4 million tons of itself every second of every day to shape and hone and feed our brains, our flesh, our bones? It’s because we are all bound by gravity to interact in one great round. How this can happen boggles our minds. What would happen if there were no gravity, no allurement? Total disaster – a word that means stars disintegrating.

Allurement/gravity is not as obvious at the micro level as it is on the macro level but it is still ever fascinating. What moves males and females to the point where they want to make a lifelong commitment to one another and to take on the very demanding task of rearing a child? What attracts bees to flowers, kids to ice cream, adults to cocktails? There’s something going on that looks like allurement. Right?

At a deeper level allurement plays a vocational role. The brilliant teacher Joseph Campbell urged his students “to follow their bliss” – a very succinct way of saying – do, be what you are allured to. The importance of that is that when people are doing what they are allured to they themselves become alluring and the process begins to snowball. Life then becomes a fantastic, creative celebration for everyone. Bliss cannot be measured by dollars and possessions. Bliss originates inside not outside the individual.

A burgeoning old poet recently wrote:

Attracting action permeates the Universe in all her states.
And when you push to basic source you’ll find this comprehensive Force
That operates like gentle shove. We should just name her plain old Love.

Love, of course is not a word, or a concept, or an action. Love is a person – the Self that is progressively being incarnated in each one of us. Alfred N. Whitehead remarked that in the Universe “There is an allure, a creative advance into novelty”. Ken Wilbur stated, “There is room for a Kosmos of Eros”. Jeremy Taylor, Ph.D., stated flat out, “Gravity is Love.” So the final question is, how does one become the dynamic of Love in human form? That same old poet offered this answer:

How can you learn to become Love? It’s simple. Give yourself a shove.
The theory won’t do the trick. Immersion is what makes it stick.
So listening and following the urge Allurement tries to bring
Unites one with the Cosmic Love. Allurement-Love go hand in glove.

1. Explain our “indispensable place” in the process of being?
2. Are you aware of your trust dividends, and how do you spend them?
3. What does allurement mean to you?
4. What in the natural world is alluring to you?
5. How does allurement play a vocational role?

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