The Living Universe by Duane Elgin

Author:Duane Elgin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2009-01-14T10:00:00+00:00

Growing Self-Organizing Systems

Assuming the universe is a completely dynamic living system, a core question emerges: How does the transparent aliveness of the Mother Universe enter into material form and manifest itself as coherent and persisting structures like galaxies, planets, and conscious beings? How can we live in a universe of flowing movement that nevertheless appears as the stable forms we see in the world around us? That, I believe, is a central project of our daughter universe.

Everything that exists is a flowing movement that endures, not because it has inherent solidity but because the life energy of the universe flows through it. Like an eddy in a stream or vortex in a whirlpool, all that exists depends upon the flow-through to sustain a persisting pattern. If the flow-through stops, the whirlpool or the eddy disappears. What is true for the fabric of reality is also true for us. Human beings are not solid or permanently existing entities—we are flow-through beings whose very existence depends completely on the life energy of Mother Universe flowing through us.

Instead of spraying energy in all directions and losing coherence, the universe is continually focusing and conserving its flow-through energy by creating self-organizing systems. Everywhere we look the universe is busy with one overriding project—creating and sustaining dynamically stable entities. Throughout the natural world, we see a recurring organizing pattern of dynamic stability. This form is called a torus, and has the shape of a donut. At every level of the cosmos, we find the characteristic structure and geometry of torus-like, or toroidal, forms. The torus is significant because it is the simplest geometry of a dynamic, self-referencing, and self-organizing system that has the capacity to keep pulling together and sustaining itself. By virtue of a reflexive nature that curves back upon itself, the torus has the potential to be connected with and “know” its own dynamics.

The accompanying figure shows six expressions of this easily recognizable form—from atoms, to humans, to galaxies.2 The physical forms found throughout the universe are visible expressions of nature’s evolutionary intention and direction. We see forms that are turning back upon themselves in a reflexive process—connecting with themselves so they can become self-possessing and self-stabilizing.

Because we find this characteristic form at every level of the universe, it shows that a fundamental activity and evolutionary intention is being expressed in nature’s designs. Life is constantly seeking to connect with itself—to know itself and grow itself to higher levels of self-organization. A natural expression of this deep, evolutionary impulse is humanity’s striving to fulfill our species name as the creatures who are doubly wise (we are able to directly experience and be aware of our capacity for knowing). Humanity’s efforts to awaken and evolve are a direct expression of the central project of the cosmos. In turn, we can learn a great deal about ourselves by considering the most basic properties of the self-organizing systems found throughout the cosmos.

The Torus Found Throughout Nature

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