The Living Universe - Duane Elgin [93]
Voluntary Simplicity (Elgin), 6
warfare, psychic, 48
Watts, Alan, Zen scholar, 73
wealth, narrowing the economic disparities between opportunity and, 168–169
Western thought, impact of, 77–80
Wheeler, John
quantum foam theory, 41–42
the quantum principle, 37
theory of superspace, 84–85
Whitehead, Alfred North, “occasions of experience,” 79
Whitman, Walt
colorless light, 101
the divine in nature, 19
Wiener, Norbert, pattern of the universe, 42
Wilson, E.O., biophilia, 10
wisdom
culture, 143
harvesting the human experience, 80–82
using stories to pass along, 13
wisdom traditions
the Golden Rule in, 145–146
sacred meaning and knowledge, 109
spirituality and the universe, 86–89
theme of light in, 98–102
views of the universe, 59–60
womb, cosmic, 89–90
world
intense interdependence of the, 182
solidity of the matrial, 97–98
wormholes, relationship to black holes, 53–54
wounds, healing through reconciliation, 169–170
Wright, Frank Lloyd, belief in God, 11
Yung-chia, Zen view of the universe, 88
Zen
becoming centered, 73
Buddhist wisdom traditions from the Lanbkavatara Sutra, 88
zero point, background energy, 38–39
Zimmer, Heinrich, Hindu cosmology, 70
About the Author
DUANE ELGIN is an internationally recognized visionary, speaker, and author. He earned his MBA from the Wharton Business School and then an MA in economic history from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2001 he was awarded an honorary PhD for work in “ecological and spiritual transformation” from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. In 2006 Elgin received the Goi International Peace Award in recognition of his contribution to a global “vision, consciousness, and lifestyle” that fosters a “more sustainable and spiritual culture.”
In the early 1970s Elgin worked in Washington, D.C., as a senior staff member of a joint Presidential-Congressional Commission on the American Future. He then moved to California to work as a senior social scientist with the think tank SRI International, where he co-authored numerous studies on the long-range future. With Joseph Campbell and a small team of scholars, he co-authored the report that later became the book Changing Images of Man (1982). He co-authored other major reports as well: Anticipating Future National and Global Problems (for the President’s Science Advisor), Alternative Futures for Environmental Policy (for the Environmental Protection Agency), and Limits to the Management of Large, Complex Systems (for the National Science Foundation).
Seeing the challenges ahead, Elgin left SRI in 1977 to focus on writing and non-partisan organizing of citizens around issues of media accountability and citizen empowerment. Elgin’s first book was published in 1981: Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (3rd edition, forthcoming). This pioneering book is recognized as a classic in exploring more sustainable and meaningful ways of living. The idea of a living universe was at the foundation of his next book, Awakening Earth: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness (1993). This is a big-picture overview of the evolution of human consciousness, both personal and social, from awakening hunter-gatherers to the modern era and then into the deep future. Elgin’s third book, Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity’s Future (2000), explored the “adversity trends” and the “opportunity trends” that were converging at that time; it suggested ways the human family could avoid an evolutionary crash and instead realize an evolutionary leap forward. Elgin has also contributed chapters to sixteen books, and published more than seventy articles on subjects ranging from social transformation and simplicity to media accountability and a living universe.
Elgin has been researching the theme of a living universe for the past twenty-seven years, and elements of his work have been published in scholarly journals. In 1988 he published the lengthy article on the cosmology of a reflective and regenerative universe: