What Is Cosmic Consciousness? The Quest for Hidden Reality

By Deepak Chopra, M.D., FACP, and Menas Kafatos, Ph.D.

 

Is there such a thing as higher consciousness?  For a tiny fraction of the population, who believe they have experienced God directly, this is a spiritual question with a definite answer. But for most people the question is hypothetical.  Every spiritual tradition has asserted that there is a hidden reality which can be uncovered through transcending – or going beyond – the five senses. There are elaborate directions for accomplishing this leap, in the form of prayer, meditation, renunciation, and faith – the religious history of humankind has never stopped directing its aspirations to a higher plane. But everyday life consumes our attention, and in a skeptical age the erosion of belief makes higher consciousness seem very far away if not irrelevant.

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The Best New Year’s Resolution: Be Good To Your Genes

By Deepak Chopra, MD and Rudolph Tanzi, Ph.D.

Image: hiddenlighthouse

The New Year occasions all kinds of resolutions (which only 8% of people keep, according to Forbes magazine), but almost no one, I imagine, resolves to improve the function of their genes. The fact that this is even possible sounds mystifying, since the specific genes you’re born with remain the same throughout your lifetime (except in certain cells as we age, e.g. in tumors). But now geneticists increasingly appreciate that the output of our genes varies considerably, not just from year to year but from minute to minute. The genetic read-out of two identical twins is quite similar at birth, but looks very different by age seventy. This understanding, still in its infancy, belongs to a growing field known as epigenetics. In the coming years research projects are set to reveal just how deeply a person can affect the activity of their individual genome – the findings so far are very promising. (more…)

What Is Consciousness & Where Is It?

[youtube]http://youtu.be/vXC0RUH1axE[/youtube]

 

What is the fundamental activity in the universe? Although neuroscience has made enormous progress in looking at the brain correlates of subjective and objective experience, there is still no theory on how we experience mental or perceptual reality.

This is known as the “hard problem” in consciousness research.


• Is there a scientifically viable way to explain consciousness?
• Does mainstream science have the methodologies to address this question?
• How do we explain intention, insight, intuition, imagination, creativity, or free will?
• Is free will an illusion?
• Are there states of consciousness that go beyond waking, dreaming and sleeping?

Wisdom traditions speak of higher states of consciousness such as soul consciousness, cosmic consciousness, divine consciousness, and unity consciousness. Is there a way of understanding these states or validating them scientifically? Is our current science which is based on a subject/object split equipped to answer these mysteries? What is the nature of the universe? What is the of nature awareness that makes it possible for us to experience the universe?

Deepak is addressing in this talk these questions as well as others cosmic riddles.