Reflections on Cosmos and Consciousness III: The Cosmology of Love

By Michael Mannion

In part one of his scientific autobiography, Wilhelm Reich stated his view of what lay at the heart of his life’s work. “Its core remains, as always, the enigma of love, to which we all owe our being.” This sentence was the inspiration for The Mindshift Institute’s September 9-11, 2005 Conference, Cosmos and Consciousness III: The Cosmology of Love.

The Mindshift Institute held this conference because we know that a focus on love is more urgent now than ever. Unconditional love, altruistic love, compassion, and forgiveness all arise from the unlimited love present in creation and all are essential to our survival. All are essential to our survival—yet this fact does not seem to have penetrated deeply enough into our consciousness to be manifest in our behavior.

Dozens of wars are raging on our planet. Human destructiveness and self-destructiveness are evident everyday in large and small scale in newspaper, magazine, radio and TV news reports. We seem to be fighting social problems the way conventional doctors fight illnesses—by treating the symptoms.

Can anything be done at the root to help turn our world around? Reich believed that only “the re-establishment of the natural capacity for love” can eliminate human destructiveness.

What is love? A primal force of creation? The origin of all that exists? God? An emotion associated with certain life forms that have evolved on Earth? Can Love save us from our many and serious problems? Or is that a naïve fantasy? Can love heal us in body and soul? Or is this an illusion?

The basic question, What is Love?, remains unanswered to this day after millennia of searching by human beings using the tools of science and spirit. But by the end of the conference, many participants had a deeper sense of the role of Love in their lives and saw clearly that Love can help us greatly as we try our best to make our Earth a more livable and loving home.

We were deeply moved by the many beautiful things participants shared with us in person, in letters or via email. For example, a participant from Vermont wrote, “It was enormously exciting to be part of it, to hear such heartening, hopeful messages and to learn of connections I can make to follow this path.” Others said they appreciated “the atmosphere of utter awareness;” “ the ‘liveliness’ of the presenters;” “the new ideas and personal sharing of the speakers;” “the like-minded people who want to ‘Be!’” and “the interaction with loving individuals with new ideas.”

People who attended The Cosmology of Love also wrote that they enjoyed the energy in the room, the warm welcome, the information and affirmation of the speakers.” NC, Massachusetts. One person from Maine summed the day up simply, “ It was luminous.”


Has There Ever Been A Cosmology of Love?

From the ancient thought systems of the East to contemporary scientific explorations in the West, the phenomenon of love has held a central place in many of humanity’s attempts to understand itself and the cosmos in which it exists. In one way or another, all human cultures have known that love is fundamental to our existence.

In the earliest religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, the essence of creation was understood to be love. For many natural philosophers in ancient Greece, love was the source or origin of existence. Empedocles (495-435 BC) wrote, “At the beginning of time, Love completely dominated the universe.” And at least while Jesus was alive, the message of Christianity was a gospel of love. As is clearly evident in the savage sectarian conflicts since then, the organized religions of the world have strayed far from their focus on love.

Artists have understood that love is the central phenomenon of existence and expressed it in many ways. For example, the poet Dante wrote that “love moves the sun and the other stars.” E.E Cummings wrote that “love is the every only god.” Over the centuries, philosophers have explored the meaning of love without, unfortunately, coming any closer to comprehending it.

People in the sociopolitical sphere have tried to create more compassionate, loving societies. Yet Marx’s humanitarian sociology became the Gulags and death camps of communism; democracies created to bring liberty and hope to people have been undermined by crude capitalism; and plans for achieving “One World” equality for all Earthlings are fading before the rise of the global transnational corporate state.

For the past 100 years in the West, psychologists have focused on love, but more on its absence and pathological forms or on the inability to love, rather than on love itself. However, in Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud wrote of a way of living that “does not turn away from the external world” and that “is not content to aim at an avoidance of unpleasure—a, goal as we might call it, of weary resignation.”

He talked of a passionate way of being that strives for happiness and may come closer to achieving happiness than any other lifestyle people have devised. “I am, of course, speaking of the way of life which makes love the center of everything, which looks for all satisfaction in loving and being loved. A psychical attitude of this sort comes naturally enough to all of us…” But Freud and his followers rejected “the way of life which makes love the center of everything.” They chose, instead, adaptation to society.

All of the ancient schools of healing recognized that healers or physicians did not themselves heal or cure. They merely assisted the Life Force, or the power of Love, within individuals. Healing was achieved by the Life Force itself. Complementary or integrative healers have returned to this ancient wisdom today but this truth has not yet penetrated into conventional medicine or society in general.

Despite powerful insights and intuitions among religious, artistic, scientific, medical and socially conscious men and women over the millennia, a true cosmology of love has not yet taken hold on Earth. All of the great efforts to make our world more loving have failed so far despite the best intentions of so many.

Can a cosmology of love become a reality if we do not understand why the great life-positive contributions of the past 4-6,000 years have left things unchanged or even made the situation worse?


How Would a Cosmology of Love Change Our World?

We are using the word cosmology in an expanded sense, to mean a specific view of the universe that is shaped by wisdom and knowledge gained, not only from scientific study, but also, from other ways of knowing.

In the traditional religious cosmology, of which there are a number of variations, the universe was created by God. In today’s dominant materialist, scientific view, the cosmos came about accidentally as the result of a “Big Bang.” An ancient cosmology has returned in a contemporary form and, in this view, “Consciousness” is primary and has created the physical world. In the absence of certain knowledge and understanding, a thousand hypotheses flourish.

In all of today’s various cosmologies or worldviews, people’s actions are motivated by their deepest conscious and unconscious beliefs. What would life on Earth be like if our deepest belief were that Love is All and that we are all One in Love?

If humanity were to perceive fully and completely, that Love is the “Source,” “Origin,” or “Creator” of existence, how would our lives—personal and societal—be different? Fundamental changes in the way we live on Earth would become evident in the functioning of our governments, businesses, scientific, medical, religious and educational institutions.

Imagine the power of healing we could bring to all of our relationships—with each other, with the other living beings on our planet, and with the planet itself—if each decision we made was based on Love. The words “revolutionary” and “radical” fail to convey the magnitude of the change that would occur in health and healing, for example, if a cosmology of love existed on Earth.

Imagine the impact a “Cosmology of Love” would have on the institution of marriage; family structure; fetal and neonatal care; birthing practices; child-rearing; attitudes toward human sexuality, especially during adolescence; relations between men and women, particularly intimate ones; the emotional connections between parents and children, old and young, people of diverse backgrounds, interests, beliefs or origins—all of these would be radically different.

Are we any closer to understanding Love and its role in our lives? Pierre Teihard de Chardin believed that, “Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness…the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world man will have discovered fire.”

It may be that Teilhard’s intuition will find its fruition in the life-positive work being done in our era, perhaps in the science developed by Wilhelm Reich which has the potential to be the foundation of a Cosmology of Love. Reich understood that the primordial cosmic energy he discovered and called orgone is the energy of Love.


The Cosmology of Love Conference:
Three Exciting Presenters And Scores of Participants Explore Love

Love calls us to a higher order of vision. The Mindshift Institute invited three presenters to help us look at Love through their separate, but complementary, lenses. Each of them is motivated by love and their actions in the world demonstrate this fact.

Cosmos and Consciousness III: The Cosmology of Love featured Institute of Noetic Sciences president James O’Dea; author, social architect and futurist, August T. Jaccaci; and surgeon, author and founder of the H.O.P.E. support groups, Ken Hamilton, MD.

At the day-long conference, and also during a beautiful weekend event involving the presenters and 25 other participants, many aspects of love were explored—and experienced. Together, we sought to understand better the role of love in our very origins; its role as a force that sustains us as individuals and societies; its crucial function in health and healing, including sexual expression; and its cosmic manifestations.

During our time together, conference participants discovered that they resonated more with one presenter than another, or with some of viewpoints expressed but not others. But during the weekend event—and the conference itself—there was an emotional and intellectual opening up in which many let the light of others pass through the prism of their selves. The spectrum of diverse experiences that exists hidden in the light then became visible. By listening with love to others who were coming from love, many felt the power of love move in them. As psychologist and author Kenneth Ring, PhD has written, “That love is there for all of us, and, once you open to it, it will inevitably lead you to yourself—your real self.” Isn’t that the way love works?


The Gnostic and The Scientist: Ways of Knowing Love

The first speaker for the day was James O’Dea, president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. For 10 years, he had been the Director of Amnesty International’s Washington DC office. Formerly, he was the Executive Director of the Seva Foundation.

According to Mr. O’Dea, there is an ancient science that brings together love and knowledge. Mystics speak of universal love and states of oneness and the paths that lead to them. Yet, he notes, most agree that intuition alone will not get us there; knowledge and a teacher are both essential.

In his presentation, Mr. O’Dea looked at the many paths available that may lead to an understanding of love. The gnostic combines the practice of love with the study of wisdom or spiritual science. The scientist uses various cognitive, rational, empirical methodologies to investigate and theorize about the nature of reality. He put many questions to the conference participants, both the gnostics and scientists who attended:
His talk was intellectually and emotionally powerful and well-received by the audience.


HOPE and Health Care: A Window to its Cosmology

Dr. Ken Hamilton, a board-certified allopathic general surgeon, followed James O’Dea. His roots comprise allopathic medicine and Christian Science. His patients showed him that the surgeon-patient relationship had a powerful impact on the outcome of surgical therapies. In 1987, he started a support group in his practice. Its participants chose to call it a HOPE Group, using the acronym for Healing of Persons Exceptional. He sheathed his scalpel in 1988 to concentrate on bringing hope and love into healthcare. He is the author of SoulCircling: the Journey to the Who.

To Dr. Hamilton, until recently, Love has usually found itself outside the realm of science. Contemporary scientists are now starting to study love—but they do not call it love. Rather, they talk about relationships, fields, energies, attractions, etc. Dr Hamilton asks, “Isn't love inclusive of all these?”

Medicine has known of the healing power of relationships for centuries Dr. Hamilton noted that the effects of love show up with increasing frequency now that medicine has begun to adopt that which it calls "evidence-based" practices. He shared some beautiful examples of love at work in the course of disease, discussed how it could possibly work, and suggested ways in which modern health care can open a window to the Cosmology of Love.

In his talk, Dr. Hamilton shared many examples of healing that was achieved by working with his patients so that they could begin to love themselves. For Dr, Hamilton, the ability to love oneself is at the foundation of the ability to take care of one’s own health and to bring about healing in time of illness.


A Cosmology of Love

August T. Jaccaci has worked with leaders throughout the world who want to envision and architect an ideal future for themselves and their enterprises. He is a gifted speaker, a respected visionary and a leading social inventor. He earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University. He is president of the nonprofit organization Unity Scholars and the founder of the Nature Planning Network and the author of two books, Chief Evolutionary Officer—Leaders Mapping the Future and General Periodicity: Nature’s Creative Dynamics.

Mr. Jacacci believes that Love is the source, the substance and the future of all being of the cosmos and everything within it. Nature is the architecture of love. In his talk, he explored the reality of love as energy, idea, value and intention in the cosmos and in all human lives.

It is his strong belief that we are now witnessing—and helping to initiate—the emergence of a new planetary political economy ,one increasingly influenced by love. According to Mr. Jaccaci, we are now beginning to understand that the benevolent use of spirit in our lives is the next stage of human evolution. Our entrance into that next stage of consciousness is the purpose of our newly forming cosmology and its complementary spiritual technologies.


Conclusion

Mr. Jaccaci firmly believes that—by attending the conference and putting Love into practice in their lives—the participants are directly involved in making Teilhard de Chardin’s prediction come true: we are discovering fire for the second time and are now participating in an evolutionary leap for humanity.

Although the conference is over, and the participants have returned home to Washington State, California, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Georgia and many other parts of the United States, its spirit is continuing. About 20 of those who co-created the event have joined Mr. Jacacci and his wife Joanne in an exciting venture. Together, they are creating what is being tentatively called the “Love Cosmology Project.” Those who would like to know more about the conference can email Unity Scholars in Maine at to find out what is developing.

The late Dr. John Mack used to enjoy making a particular point by telling an old joke in which one person asks another, “What do you think of Western civilization?” The second person replies, “I think it would be a good idea.” What do we think of human civilization and culture? We, too, think it would be a good idea and agree with Wilhelm Reich who wrote, “Culture and civilization have not been yet. They are just beginning to enter the social scene.” It may be that a cosmology of love is a prerequisite for true culture and civilization to develop.



©2005 Journal of the Minshift Institute