Brian Swimme is Director of the Center for the Story of the Universe and a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he teaches evolutionary cosmology and philosophy to graduate students. He lectures widely and has presented at many conferences. He co-wrote and hosted the 60 minute film, Journey of the Universe, broadcast on PBS television stations nationwide.
Brian has been my main philosophical squeeze since the late 80s when I read his book, The Universe is a Green Dragon. It’s a “cosmic creation story” of our billions of years of evolution with humanity at the leading edge of the known universe. As good as Brian’s book is, I’m equally enamored with its wonderful author who inspires everyone in his presence with the majesty of the universe and the privilege of being part of it. We did a memorable evening with him at my house a lot of years ago, and when he came to L.A. a few weeks ago to be on a panel and to give a keynote address at a local event I had the pleasure of having him at my house again.
We turned the camera on at a brunch with a few good friends who each read Brian a favorite passage from Green Dragon to spark our conversation:
Here are excerpts from his keynote address and his panel at an event leading up to the 2018 Global Parliament of the World’s Religions:
Thank you, Sue!
I SO needed that
xo
Just seeing this — had to fix a glitch. I so need Brian all the time. He is my inspiration!
While I fully appreciate what I believe to be the central message and theme of Brian Swimme’s discussions, I was actually waiting for him to reach a point which moved beyond the generalities and superficialities he continued to reiterate. Whereas he speak of a story to the Universe, I don’t think he is aware that the story has an end in the sense that it is unfolding with us as characters in a drama whose scripts portray what I call “Rationalized Adustments” resulting from accommodations life is making to a deteriorating environment… and I am not just talking about human influenced pollution or simply the planet Earth… but the solar system and galaxy.
Whereas it may make people feel good to use words like creativity, spirituality, inter-connectedness and the like… such items are afternoon tea party cookies which taste good to the palate of those who are striving to adapt one’s consciousness to the ongoing deteriorations while maintaining some semblance of equilibrium. In other words, metaphorically speaking, the planet and all life on it are headed towards a demise that will not end like a pleasant afternoon brunch.
One must wonder what reactions Mr. Swimme would have if the auditoriums were filled with philosophers such as myself who would not permit his discussions to linger in the domain of generalities and superficialities by drawing his attention to specificities he apparently seems to be unconscious of. His conversations, as seen in the above short clips express pseudo-religion and pseudo-science as well as pseudo-philosophy. His comments were more for soap opera watching grandmothers and not graduate and post-graduate level researchers.
Granted he is an amiable fellow and I am appreciative of being included to receive Sue’s many wonderful posts; had the clips been any longer than they were… I would have had to shut them out because they were too elementary for me.
Just got notification of this. Sorry to be late.
Be still my heart. He is my main inspiration. It’s from the perspective he holds and how eloquently and poetically he delivers it, backed up by his being the warmest, most thoughtful, considerate, receptive, attentive, delightful human being I know. Maybe you’re evaluating from a different set of criteria. What I primarily get from his work is how I’m part of the original fireball — the atoms are in me. It’s a continuing event where we are creating the new all the time, and what a privilege it is to be the most evolved species that has taken over evolution from nature and has the capacity to appreciate the universe and also to destroy it — creating us being a chance the universe took in its capacity as an evolving entity. Along with privilege comes responsibility — it’s in my hands now and I engage as responsible for the future. Make any sense to you?
I very much enjoyed Brian Swimme’s panel talk about Americans having so much stuff they have to ship their new stuff directly to their storage units! If we packaged up all that stuff and sent it all to Mexico and Central American countries we’d give them a taste of the “American dream” without having to trek so far. I have too much stuff and I’m willing to start the ball rolling.
I’m late getting this — a glitch we just fixed. Now, there’s a project. If I knew my stuff would go right to people who don’t have stuff I’d be happy to pare down. Find out how and I’ll be on board!
“If we packaged up all that stuff and sent it all to Mexico and Central American countries we’d give them a taste of the “American dream” without having to trek so far. I have too much stuff and I’m willing to start the ball rolling.”
The above comment really hurt me with its insensitivity and with its implicit assumptions. It gives rise to connotations that a lot of plastic waste, e-waste and hazardous waste is actually shipped out from developed countries in the North to developing countries (also read countries whose bio-resources were systematically plundered by colonists of the North). It hurts because the American way of life is what is hurtling our planet to doom. It hurts because the American way of life, driven by a greedy, powerful corporate culture is now the way of life in the world and has resulted “overconsumption” in the emerging economies of India and China. It hurts because of the assumption that everyone of us in the South wants the American Dream. I don’t. I choose to live in community and embrace voluntary simplicity. The idea that you just want to dump things you no longer want in the countries of the South, is simply insensitive. At the very least, have some empathy, and find a way to distribute it among your own countrymen not as economically privileged as you.
I am not blaming Americans for their consumerism, for all this, till until recently perhaps, was done out of ignorance. But I do expect Americans watching such videos to take responsibility for the destruction that they have wrought on the world, at least just in the way they express themselves. As I had once joked with Brian, that I wouldn’t have minded Americans consuming the lion share of the Earth’s resources, had they also led the world in developing a “higher” consciousness. But perhaps the saddest thing is, each year I go back for a visit to USA, I find more sadness and despair on its streets . . .
I apologize for this rant, but at least it helped me to transform my feelings of initial outrage to pity and sadness that America is no longer great.
the fact that Brian Swimme is a Mathematical Cosmologist, soothes any ruffles had if I had any, which I don’t. Makes him entitled to those tea-party cookies, as far as I’m concerned!
Thanks, Sue, for any reminders of Brian and his work.
Jude
in Woodstock
……uh oh, that probably explains it!