The course is a journey of exploration of the cosmos and the place of humans in it. It is a kind of ‘Hero’s Journey’ in which you are invited to relax personal and cultural beliefs [Phase of Separation], explore new perspectives [Phase of Initiation] and reperceiving yourself and the world [Phase of Return].
Our vehicle for the journey is the spaceship of the mind, using the mind’s capacity to imagine worlds and visit unusual places. We need first of all to build this exploration vehicle. It has three main components.
The first component is a new way of thinking about the structure of things which draws on the remarkable qualities that are associated with number. The qualitative significance of number provides a version of systems thinking (qualsystems) that accounts for the processes of the unfolding of the manifest universe from the implicate order.
The second component is a new way of thinking about the fundamentals of space, time and pattern which involves getting the hang of two additional time-like dimensions and one of unity. Thus, with the three dimensions of space we have a seven-dimensional framework for applied imagination and experiments of visualisation to expand our ‘present moment’.
The third component is tuning in pervasive nature of intelligence and its properties of wholeness, transcendence and immanence. The Universe is seen as only partially deterministic and imbued with creativity and its accompanying hazard at every level
With these three components at our disposal, we then explore the various scales of the universe from the zero-point field to the total pattern of galaxies and explore the remarkable way in which we humans seem to exist at a mid-point in the various scales of the Universe. We are right in the middle of a universe of twelve major levels of being.
We can then explore how these levels are linked together through reciprocal transformations to form eight complex cosmoses This is the basic structure of the cosmic ecology which is much wider than terrestrial ecology. From this we can better identify the place and role of humanity.
The transformations within the cosmic ecology are processes of energy transformation. but they range much further than those we consider in mainstream science. There are qualities of energy beyond those recognised by science and cosmic laws as to how they interact to maintain the balance of things on and between all levels.
With an integral experience of the present moment, we can dive into new thoughts and insights about what the role and purpose of human life is and recognise how humanity is falling short on the role it needs to play, and largely fails to play, in the reciprocal maintenance of the solar system.
We end our journey with an attempt to answer the question ‘where are we in the process of human and planetary evolution?’ We consider the big cycles of change that we are only dimly aware of that determine the pathways of history and the opportunities present in any given age and region.
The final part of our journey we return home and ‘know the place for the first time’. We can look back and consider how far the different worldview cosmic ecology presents has practical consequences for how we interpret what is going on, what it means, what is possible in daily life and what our individual role or even destiny might be in the midst of all this.