Awakening Human Consciousness

Although disputed, there is much evidence that a basic sentience, a capacity for knowing — not by our rational thinking but by a non-rational (not irrational) knowing — is a fundamental property of the universe. Dramatic discoveries and changes in understanding help us realize how deeply human consciousness is integral to the earth and cosmic story, no longer isolated from a supportive, alive context. Although the universe is now understood to have a basic capacity for knowing, it is without the ability to reflect upon the knowing process itself to the extent that humans clearly do with language and images. The universe is thought to be becoming conscious of itself in a new way through the apparently unique self-reflective capacities in human consciousness. We need to awaken further to the great significance of this capacity and the responsibilities it entails so we can address the threatening ecological crisis and other great dangers. .

This self-reflective capacity is expressed by the woman in the painting. With this capacity we can seek, as Tomas Berry teaches, to reinvent the human as a dimension of the emergent universe and evolve into a mode of being human in which we care deeply for all of life and may be willing to make sacrifices based on this caring.