What is it like to be the universe?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2298/FID2504811MKeywords:
cosmopsychism, panpsychism, mystical experience, cosmic consciousness, Plotinus, Leibniz, monadologyAbstract
Cosmopsychism attributes subjectivity to the universe as a whole. What might that subjectivity be like? There are differing opinions in the philosophical literature, ranging from “simply a mess” to highly advanced. Mystical experience, if it genuinely brings unity or identity with the universe, could provide some insight. The evidence points to conscious mind of extraordinary quality and perhaps a universe with many cosmic subjects, an intersubjectivity that can be interpreted through the lens of a modified Leibnizian monadology.
References
Albahari, Miri. 2020. “Beyond Cosmopsychism and the Great I Am: How the World Might Be Grounded in Universal ‘Advaitic’ Consciousness.” In: Seager, William, ed. The Routledge Handbook of Panpsychism. New York, NY: Routledge: pp.: 199–130.
Allen-Hermanson, Sean. 2018. “So That’s What It’s Like!” In: Andrews, Kristin, and Jacob Beck, eds. The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Animal Minds. London: Routledge: pp.: 157–164.
Armstrong, A. H., trans. 1984. Plotinus: Enneads. Vol. V. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
______., trans. 1988. Plotinus: Enneads. Vol. VII. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Baltzly, Dirk. 2003. “Stoic Pantheism.” Sophia 42 (2): 3–33. https://doi.org/10.1007/ BF02782397
Brüntrup, Godehard, Benedikt Paul Göcke, and Ludwig Jaskolla, eds. 2020. Panentheism and Panpsychism: Philosophy of Religion Meets Philosophy of Mind. Leiden: Brill.
Bucke, Richard Maurice. [1901] 1989. Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind. Reprint, Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press.
Carpenter, Edward. 1904. The Art of Creation: Essays on the Self and Its Powers. London: George Allen.
Chalmers, David J. 2016. “The Combination Problem for Panpsychism.” In: Bruntrup, Godehard, and Ludwig Jaskolla, eds. Panpsychism: Contemporary Perspectives. New York, NY: Oxford University Press: pp.: 179–214.
Coleman, Sam. 2014. “The Real Combination Problem: Panpsychism, Micro- Subjects, and Emergence.” Erkenntnis 79 (1): 19–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10670-013-9431-x
Farrell, B. A. 1950. “II.—Experience.” Mind 59 (234): 170–198. https://doi. org/10.1093/mind/LIX.234.170
Ganeri, Jonardon. 2022. “Cosmic Consciousness.” The Monist 105 (1): 43–57. https:// doi.org/10.1093/monist/onab022
Gaudry, Justin. 2008. “Does Physicalism Entail Cosmopsychism? Panexperientialism. May 24. URL: https://panexperientialism.blogspot.com/2008/05/does- physicalism-entail-cosmopsychism.html (last accessed: March 15, 2020).
Goff, Philip. 2017. Consciousness and Fundamental Reality. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
______. 2023. Why? The Purpose of the Universe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hacker, P. M. S. 2002. “Is There Anything It Is Like to Be a Bat?” Philosophy 77 (2): 157–174. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819102000220
Hauskeller, Christine, and Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes, eds. 2022. Philosophy and Psychedelics: Frameworks for Exceptional Experience. London: Bloomsbury.
Helmig, Christoph. 2020. “The World Soul in Antiquity and Beyond.” In Helmig, Christoph, ed. World Soul – Anima Mundi: On the Origins and Fortunes of a Fundamental Idea. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter: pp.: 1–23.
Hood, Ralph W., Jr. 2005. “Mystical, Spiritual, and Religious Experiences.” In: Paloutzian, Raymond F., and Crystal L. Park, eds. Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. New York: Guildford Press: pp.: 348–364.
Houston, Jean. 1982. The Possible Human: A Course in Extending Your Physical, Mental, and Creative Abilities. Los Angeles, CA: J. P. Tarcher.
Kastrup, Bernardo. 2021. “Analytic Idealism and Psi: How a More Tenable Metaphysics Neutralizes a Physicalist Taboo.” In: Kelly, Edward F., and Paul Marshall, eds. Consciousness Unbound: Liberating Mind from the Tyranny of Materialism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield: pp.: 257–282.
Kelly, Edward F. 2007. “Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century.” In: Kelly, Edward F., Emily Williams Kelly, Adam Crabtree, Alan Gauld, Michael Grosso, and Bruce Greyson. Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield: pp.: 577–643.
______. 2015. “Toward a Worldview Grounded in Science and Spirituality.” In Kelly, Edward F., Adam Crabtree, and Paul Marshall, eds. Beyond Physicalism: Toward Reconciliation of Science and Spirituality. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield: pp.: 493–551.
Lockwood, Michael. 1989. Mind, Brain, and the Quantum: The Compound “I.” Oxford: Blackwell.
Magee, Glenn Alexander. 2021. “A Neo-Hegelian Theory of Mystical Experience and Other Extraordinary Phenomena.” In: Kelly, Edward F., and Paul Marshall, eds. Consciousness Unbound: Liberating Mind from the Tyranny of Materialism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield: pp.: 229–255.
Marshall, Paul. 2001. “Transforming the World into Experience: An Idealist Experiment.” Journal of Consciousness Studies 8 (1): 59–76.
______. 2005. Mystical Encounters with the Natural World: Experiences and Explanations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
______. 2006. The Living Mirror: Images of Reality in Science and Mysticism. Rev. ed. London: Samphire Press.
______. 2015a. “Mystical Experiences as Windows on Reality.” In: Kelly, Edward F., Adam Crabtree, and Paul Marshall, eds. Beyond Physicalism: Toward
Reconciliation of Science and Spirituality. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield: pp.: 39–76.
______. 2015b. “Why We Are Conscious of So Little: A Neo-Leibnizian Approach.” In: Kelly, Edward F., Adam Crabtree, and Paul Marshall, eds. Beyond Physicalism: Toward Reconciliation of Science and Spirituality. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield: pp.: 387–422.
______. 2019. The Shape of the Soul: What Mystical Experience Tells Us about Ourselves and Reality. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
______. 2021. “Mind Beyond Brain: Surveying the Metaphysical Landscape.” In: Kelly, Edward F., and Paul Marshall, eds. Consciousness Unbound: Liberating Mind from the Tyranny of Materialism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield: pp:. 407–482.
______. 2022. “Does Mystical Experience Give Access to Reality?” Religions 13 (10): 983. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13100983
May, Robert M. 1993. Cosmic Consciousness Revisited: The Modern Origins and Development of a Western Spiritual Psychology. Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element.
Nagasawa, Yujin, and Khai Wager. 2017. “Panpsychism and Priority Cosmopsychism.” In: Brüntrup, Godehard, and Ludwig Jaskolla, eds. Panpsychism: Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press: pp.: 113–129.
Nagel, Thomas. 1974. “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” The Philosophical Review 83 (4): 435–450.
Nomad, Ali. 1913. Cosmic Consciousness: The Man-God Whom We Await. Chicago, IL: Advanced Thought Publishing Company.
Perovich, Anthony N. 2021. “Does Bradley’s Metaphysics Satisfy ‘The Mystical Side of Our Nature’?” Collingwood and British Idealism Studies 27 (2): 267–295.
Ritchie, Sarah Lane. 2021. “Panpsychism and Spiritual Flourishing: Constructive Engagement with the New Science of Psychedelics.” Journal of Consciousness Studies 28 (9–10): 268–288.
Seager, William. 1995. “Consciousness, Information and Panpsychism.” Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (3): 272–288.
Shani, Itay. 2022. “Eden Benumbed: A Critique of Panqualityism and the Disclosure View of Consciousness.” Philosophia 50 (1): 233–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11406-021-00377-9
______. 2023. “Cosmopsychism and Non-Śankaran Traditions of Hindu Non- Dualism: In Search of a Fertile Connection.” In: Shani, Itay, and Susanne Kathrin Beiweis, eds. Cross-Cultural Approaches to Consciousness: Mind, Nature, and Ultimate Reality. London: Bloomsbury: pp.: 46–68.
Spangler, David. 1984. Emergence: The Rebirth of the Sacred. New York, NY: Dell.
Sprigge, T. L. S. 1971. “Final Causes.” Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 45 (1): 149–192. https://doi.org/10.1093/aristoteliansupp/45.1.149
______. 2006. The God of Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Traherne, Thomas. 1908. Centuries of Meditations, edited by Bertram Dobell. London: Dobell.
Vassányi, Miklós. 2011. Anima Mundi: The Rise of the World Soul Theory in Modern German Philosophy. Dordrecht: Springer.
Vazza, F., and A. Feletti. 2020. “The Quantitative Comparison Between the Neuronal Network and the Cosmic Web.” Frontiers in Physics 8: 525731. https://doi. org/10.3389/fphy.2020.525731
Velmans, Max. 2021. “Is the Universe Conscious? Reflexive Monism and the Ground of Being.” In: Kelly, Edward F., and Paul Marshall, eds. Consciousness Unbound: Liberating Mind from the Tyranny of Materialism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield: pp:. 178–225.
Wilber, Ken, ed. 1982. The Holographic Paradigm and Other Paradoxes. Boston: Shambala.
Wilberding, James, ed. 2021. World Soul: A History. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Zaehner, R. C. 1958. At Sundry Times: An Essay in the Comparison of Religions. London: Faber & Faber.
______. 1972. Drugs, Mysticism and Make-Believe. London: Collins.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Filozofija i društvo/Philosophy and Society
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Articles published in Philosophy and Society are open-access in accordance with the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License.
How to Cite
