Christogenesis, Part 3: The Spiral Dynamic, Bridging the Personal and Universal in Cosmogenic Evolution

Energy moves in cycles, circles, spirals, vortexes, whirls, pulsations, waves, and rhythms — rarely if ever in straight lines — Starhawk (“The Spiral Dance”).

Past and present, there are a number of global evolutionary leaders whose personal experience and scholarly research contribute to a cosmic synthesis, perceiving the whole with greater nuance and clarity. All of them understand evolution and development as transformative and inclusive. Toward a common purpose, it might be useful to recognize as many personal and universally renowned notables as possible on this mythical holarchy, each a whole-part (holon) finding its niche on the unifying map of cosmic meaning and identity within the interconnecting whole. As cosmogenic innovators, their methods, allurements, and viewpoints may diverge, intersect, or parallel one another. Heralded or obscure, their contributions are significant as part of the conversation, certainly with regard to one’s own personal integration journey (auto-cosmology), but especially when their individual nodal points shed light on the larger cosmogenic arc of human evolution. As in my own experience, each person on his individual integration journey has his/her own favorites as they provide meaning and clarity to the personal, and/or larger universal arc.

To illustrate on the individual level, I present below a short list of notables, calling less attention to my preferences and work than those making a more universal impact under a single icon, emphasizing the spiral as their universal container. It is left to the reader to ponder his own place (stage) on the spiraling cosmogenic trajectory, and if applicable, to determine his/her universal contribution to the spiral’s advance toward Omega.

Intentionally or otherwise, nodal points of those in my own experience that intersect with cosmic synthesis have their innovative place on this shared conceptual arc pioneered by Teilhard de Chardin. As with Teilhard, such a cosmic bridge is indicative of where the personal embodies and reflects aspects the universal that each labor under and serves individually — best represented symbolically by the ubiquitous spiral. Along with countless others, I believe those named on any list share a single evolutionary-psychological-theological grammar, energy, and awareness on the spiraling arc that embraces them all as representative of the whole. Others on their auto-cosmological journey may feel similarly, with a list of key figures, personal and universal, who influenced them on their own journey, sharing its grammar, energy, and metaphors.

Among Teilhard’s unique contributions was his use of the spiral to illustrate the universe’s convergence toward a final point of maximum complexity and consciousness (the Omega Point), in contrast to a purely linear or cyclical view of time and development. His “law of complexity consciousness” posits that evolution is not a random, directionless process, but rather has a purposeful end point. But Teilhard was not the first to use the spiral archetype in an evolutionary context. The concept of the evolutionary spiral appears in other contexts, independently, having a history before and after Teilhard’s work. In the late 19th century, well before Teilhard, Ernst Heckel used the spiral motif to illustrate common ancestry, placing humans at the top of a linear progression. And the spiral has been a key part of sacred geometry in understanding the architecture of the universe, first embraced by the ancient Celts, and later in the Spiral Dynamics school of psychology in the 1960’s. In the 1980’s it was also adopted in software engineering, totally unrelated to biological or spiritual evolution. As a universal archetype, spirals are among the most common symbols for Spirit and the eternal cross-culturally, dating back to the Neolithic period, some 3200 years. (click Resource box on top for video short on the spiral archetype)

In the Big Bang moment of creation the universe began in a massive explosion of light and heat, a boiling stew of spiraling energy that uncoiled from a tiny dot smaller than a pinhead, leaving its spiral signature engraved everywhere at all scales, innermost and outermost.

This intense burst of energy left it spiraling imprint hardwired into creation at all scales, from the galaxies, to the DNA spiral, to seashells and pinecones, to the pattern hawks descend in swooping on their prey, to the way nighttime insects swarm around a light, to sunflower seed arrangements. etc. Further, seedlings bursting forth from the soil gyrate upward in a spiraling whirl, “dancing” toward the light. And during its development, the human embryo gradually unfolds itself in a spiral, similar to the golden ratio double-logarithmic spiral, spinning itself further away from its center point with mathematical precision as it unfolds. In the fetus, the development of the heart begins first, followed by the spinal cord and brain. The heart of the human fetus locates on the very center point (magnetic still-point/axis mundi) of the golden mean or ratio (its ZPF, or zero-point field).

Though no two fingerprints are alike, all are spirals. It is no stretch of the imagination to consider the spiral as the singature hallmark (fingerprint) of the eternal in space-time, and with an independent spirit to pursue unlocking the mystery of it in the “seek and ye shall find” challenge of the ancient scrolls.

Why icons are important instructional images

Inherited language is not adequate for the task of naming the deep experiences of life. Images have the power to name, excite, heal, and teach. They speak a thousand words in many languages, all in a single icon. Images are closer to our experiences than words and are the midwives between experience and language. An icon of the nest of being, the spiral is itself a synthesis, a symbol of the cosmic egg of meaning that as an archetype resonates deep within the spirit-soul of humans. Long used as an icon of inclusivity the spiral represents a constant (still-point) as well as movement/change, contemplation as well as action as persons and their ideas are constantly in flux, spiraling down life’s many roads. Above all, the best teachers seek to make the ear and eye, providing images and metaphors that make more vivid and lasting impressions on the mind and heart.

Because the spiraling growth process involves both a constant and movement (change), it is a paradox of sorts, sometimes referred to as a dual-aspect monad. A dual-aspect monad is an integrated way of seeing mind and matter, or spirit and matter as two complementary and inseparable aspects of a single underlying reality (constant/singularity) that is neither purely mental or purely physical — like two sides of a coin, commonly imaged in the yin yang symbol. As there is only one ultimate reality in monism, each represents a different aspect of the same fundamental object, mental (consciousness/experience) and physical (brain/body). This concept helps bridge the mind-body problem by suggesting that consciousness isn’t just product of the brain, but a fundamental expression of a reality that is deeper, from which the mental-spiritual-physical emerge.

Why the spiral is an ideal synthesis icon in cosmogenesis

The spiral is inclusive of all the innovators mentioned on my auto-cosmology short list because it best provides the visual structure for mapping all developmental, theological, and evolutionary models in my experience, expressing (1) Teleology (serves a purpose), (2) Recurrence (involves return, recapitulation, renewal), (3) Transformation with continuity (with transcend and include trajectories), (4) Nested holarchy (each coil or meme contains all prior coils), (5) Field Awareness (the spiral radiates presence, perfect for spiritual awareness in the evolutionary process toward Omega), and for outpicturing Omega, the ultimate stage in cosmogenic evolution, and the transpersonal human being often referred to as Homo spiralis.

The spiral is a truly universal symbol that many agree best represents synthesis at every level, in particular the interface of the visible and invisible worlds, the pathway to enlightenment, the evolution and involution of the soul, the passage of time, emergence, initiation, a journey into and from the heart and mind of Spirit (as in a labyrinth), the awakening of the god-self, and the essence of perfection with divine love. And as the primary organizing movement of galaxies, subatomic particles, water, air, and DNA, spirals have also been used to heal. Lastly, a spiraling geometric model best symbolizes the learning process and life path, realities that seldom follow a straight line or lead to dead ends.

The role of the phi-spiral (double-spiral) in cosmogenic evolution

Much overlooked in synthesis circles and key to understanding evolving complexity consciousness is the phi-spiral (double-spiral) embedded in the geometric architecture of the cosmos at all scales. The phi-spiral, best seen imaged in ancient monoliths and sunflower seed arrangements, depicts the currents of energy that flow in different directions – like the equinoxes. Below, find a phi-spiral (dual-aspect monad) in physics showing the tensional integrity between electromagnetism (light) and gravity waves, two aspects of the same energy working in counter-rotational fields that create balance and harmony in the universe. Having eluded Einstein’s attempts at synthesis for 30 years via mathematical equations, this synthesis enigma languishes on the shelf of science, remaining an unsolved mystery in theoretical physics. In the interest of undoing this syntheis logjam in classical theory, this author proposes that uniting classical and quantum physics (qualia and quanta) by math is impossible, calling on the “consciousness is fundamental” physicists to reslove this long standing dilemma. That school posits that math itself is emergent from the field of consciousness, the latter of which cannot be quantified, only experienced. Utilizing equations as a synthesis tool to understand this unifying mystery keeps classical and quantum physics forever separate, a materialistic exercise in futility, like trying to trap smoke in a net. How does one quantify intangible experience like joy, awe, reverence, wholeness, or the rich taste of chocolate.

All phi-spiral configurations in the cosmos are counter-rotating electromagnetic fields of spinning paired opposites (dual aspect monads) that create, renew, and balance the forces of radiance and cohesion, ebb and flow, light and darkness, birth and death, transcendence and immanence, Alpha and Omega. These dual-aspect monads (like electromagnetism and gravity), operate in a perpetual circuitry of evolution and involution from Alpha to Omega as in alternating current. Following the ontological principles of “as above so below, as within so without,” their push-pull interplay at all scales of the cosmos generates dynamic order from the inside-out of the material universe. Or as Teilhard stated it, from the “heart of matter” or the “within of things.”

In the wisdom literature of the ancient scrolls, Solomon speaks of the divinely ordered plan of “times and seasons,” making his short list of fourteen paired opposites at play (dual-aspect monads), experiential determinants whose earthly polarities and tensions are shared by all (Ecclesiastes 3). He further describes the entire material order as being subject to same, a mathematical inevitability perfectly timed in the unfolding human drama wherein the entire creation is consigned toward a purposeful end. Properly understood and integrated in this grand schema, all things eventually reconcile and balance — birth/death, planting/uprooting, laughing/weeping, etc.

Archetypal in western wisdom literature prefiguring the Logos, Samson held the tension between two pillars upon which the whole structure of the Gaza temple was upheld, prior to its collapse. (Judges 16). Likewise, as a way-shower who reconciles the tension of all paradoxes, the Logos incarnate (God-of-the-Whole) later affirms that “the way” between these opposites is via the excluded middle (narrow way between opposites). Keeping them from “collapsing” one into the other, this middle path is a “straight gate” portal (magnetic still-point) likewise holding the tension between the very polarities the Whole itself has designed and created in counterbalancing unity.

To attain their laurel wreath, all creatures made in the image of their Maker are challenged to strive (Gk., agonizo = “agonize”) for same, though according to the incarnate Logos, relatively few actually discover or navigate it successfully without a higher calling, or spiritual breakthrough experience (Matt. 7). In the collision of those opposites the friction between them is what creates, transforms, and elevates consciousness toward ever higher levels of personal development and unitive awareness. And like the Logos stretched between two arms of a Roman gibbet, this godman still holds the tension of extremes in the very heart of matter on which all cosmic structures stand, first outermost (cosmo/geo/bio) in evolution, then innermost in involution and convergence (psycho/christo). And like the many heroic archetypes who prefigured him, he dies his death, transforming himself into matter and human flesh in the process “like leaven in bread” (Matt. 13:33). It is the silent activity of that same panpsychic dynamic operative in liminal space between the visible and invisible worlds, that all things cohere, and their centers steadfastly hold.

Servants of the paschal mystery, personal and universal, these paired opposites are dual-aspect monads unobtrusively at work in the space-time field, choreographies whose transforming energies can now be scientifically understood as the central dynamic in creation and process theology, evolutionary history, and spiritual formation. Only Spirit heals and connects all divisions and fragments (fractals), ever creating and reconciling the multiple by making them into one.

In cosmogenesis, the energy driving evolution that eventually takes form in matter and biogenesis begins to shift inwardly in involution, converging toward its phase in noogenesis (mind), before continuing on toward its expression in christogenesis (spiritual consciousness), and later its ultimate destination in Omega. My proposed synthesis paradigm sees this inward shift of energy in involution, moving biogenesis toward convergence and centration as circuitous, flowing back to origins in Omega, with Alpha and Omega being the same juncture, integral sides of the same cosmogenic coin. Hence, not only are Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, first and last dual-aspect monads, they are the very definition and identity of the Logos (God-of-the-Whole). Their bifurcation creates contrast, texture, and to the observer illusions of separateness in order to explore their own individual contents, range of probable outcomes, and viewpoints. From the standpoint of faith, God is one and undivided. From the standpoint of science, the God-of-the-Whole is a dual-aspect monad. Like the inside and outside of a glove, or two sides of a coin, divinity is a gestalt, a paradox where each aspect of the duality is valid depending on perspective, each collapsing the other’s probable outcomes when perceived separately. Only unitive consciousness reconciles the optical illusion of their separateness. As per Teilhard, and the Logos before him, spirituality is primarily about seeing.

If anything is true in both creation and cosmogenesis, it is that all power is generated and distributed from a single source that spin-spirals from deep within things. If cosmogenesis was a car, the spiral and phi-spiral dynamic would be its transmission — generating, channeling, and transforming that power from an invisible Source (radial energy) into multiple forms, cycles, pulsations, and rhythms (tangential energy) at all scales of the cosmos.

A transcendental indwelling in all things makes the God-of-the-Whole (Logos) both the hiding place and revelation of divinity, as unboundaried and ubiquitous as light itself, and inclusive of everything and everyone. Grounded in the created world makes the mental distinctions between natural and supernatural, science and religion fall apart, and the common domain of each. A cosmic notion of the Christ competes with and exludes no one, re-grounding it in the natural order and science, not based exclusively on special revelation, available only to a few enlightened people. That presence begins its evolutionary journey at the moment of creation in the Big Bang event (Alpha) and consummates its expression via an ingathering (convergence) in a new phylum of humans (Omega).

While his teachings later took on institutional and tribal forms that largely misrepresented his original message, earlier manuscripts excluded from the canon indicate that one doesn’t have to become a Christian to know and experience his presence personally, and in all things. Rather, they do indicate that his basic teaching underscored that the Creator (Spirit) has become matter, including human flesh, the panpsychic dwelling place of the God-of-the-Whole. However unthinkable or illogical, such introduced a view that takes matter seriously as the home of divinity, and remains the most radical contribution to spirituality among world religions.

As the eye cannot see itself without the aid of a mirror, perhaps the God-Monad cannot know itself without creating multiplicity, contrast, opposition, or friction, later reconciling and healing the tendencies in human perception and thought to divide them, knitting what only appears separate into a seamless garment in evolved unitive consciousness. Such reunites in awareness what in faulty perception and binary thinking were seen as fragments (fractals), or “two-ness,” (holons or whole-parts like Alpha and Omega), now restored in unitive consciousness on the return trip (centration) back to origins.

One realizes Omega on the journey as a runner in baseball strives to reach home plate after getting on base, ending his journey where it began, returning “home” again; the circle (circuit) symbolic of the eternal relationship between beginnings and endings, Alpha and Omega, depicted in the double-arm spiral. Thus, the need for the phi-spiral (double-spiral) as best representative of the archetype of cosmogenic evolution, the push-pull activity of the dual-aspect monad. Its choreography also found operative in the oneness/separateness choreographies of childhood attachment-separation patterns, the movement of the tides and seasons, respiratory ryhythms of inhalation/exhalation, and the heartbeat (diastole/systole), the dual dynamic at work in all of nature’s cycles, whirls, and pulsations. And most importantly, in the paschal mystery, the rigorous death-renewal choreographies or “follow me” rhythms on the archetypal path, sometimes referred to as the “hero’s journey” (Joseph Campbell). (see my DTN blog entry, Teilhard’s Mystical Bridge: The Geometric Heartbeat and Lifeblood of the Universe).

The double-spiral motif in nature and the cosmos is not random (see sunflower image below). Rather, it is the most efficient energy carrying and packaging system in the entire cosmos. The spiral not only generates spin-spiraling energy and carries information, but encodes harmony across quantum, biological, and cosmic scales innermost and outermost. The arc of the evolving universe is long, but in bends toward harmony, unity, balance, and the reconciliation of all tensions and forces at all scales, in particular the energies of radial and tangential energy, classical and quantum physics. Those overlapping energy and information fields converge and center at the macro/micro crossroads, in the human frame and consciousness, visible to those initiated and transformed into seeing it.

As a felt-sense experience (auto-cosmology), each person must have undergone enough personal integration work (shadow work) in order to hold the tension of dual-aspect paradoxes (opposites) in their awareness simultaneously, lest the journey make little sense them. And to visualize that dynamic as central to their transition from a more psychological sense of self — 1.0, toward a more spiritually integrated sense of self — 2.0 (spiritualized). One must be able to experience the process as both subject and object, seeing themselves turn with the turning of the seasons on the outside, while being unmoved (grounded/still) on the inside; in effect as a fractal (fragment) self-recognizing that it is both the holon (whole-part, ormdrop in the ocean), and the whole itself (ocean in the drop) when consciously realized. In baseball lingo, only then has one crossed home-plate on the journey, able to see their personal participation in this process as universally applicable, “arriving where they started, knowing the place for the first time” (T.S. Eliot). Not everyone is called to make this change, particularly those continuing to fulfill their human (1.0) self and assignment before moving on in awareness, perhaps recursively in another lifetime. Unfortunately, this dynamic growth process is either unknown, un-awakened, denied, or untaught in most western religious traditions.

A clean definition of the spiral as a universal synthesis icon, 

The spiral is the unrivaled icon of evolution toward union, a dynamic pattern in which matter, life, mind, culture, and spirit rise in increasing complexity, while retaining everything that came before it in transformed wholeness. Such is reflected in the major thinkers of evolutionary development and synthesis briefly outlined via my personal auto-cosmology allurements named in my book, The Ambient Christ, and in this and other columns. By no means do the thinkers named on my list exhaust the valuable work of countless others not included there.

However limited, the list below harmonizes cosmology (Swimme), psychology (Graves), sociology (Beck/Cowan), integral theory (Wilber), evolutionary theology (Teilhard/Delio), mystical Christology (Rohr/Fox), consciousness studies (Faggin), biblical reframing (D. King), early education (Morgan), and cosmotheology (Masterleo), the ambient energy field of divine presence that creates, informs, and swaddles them all from the “within” of things.

It is now unanimous that the universe is not a static creation but a 14 billion-year spiraling story. A story that begins in in fiery brilliance, moves through galaxies, cells, and consciousness — and continues now in us, the consciousness of the whole in which/whom we live, move, and have our being.

The movement itself and its unfolding dynamic processes are the teaching.

As the primary organizing movement of galaxies, subatomic particles, water, air, DNA, seed growth, and childbirth, spirals have been also used to heal. They are found everywhere in the cosmos and nature at all scales, and are symbolized in all cultures. Further, the spiral is the universal symbol most suitable to represent a universal spirt-science synthesis — the interface of the eternal (God-of-the-Whole) with space-time, the pathway to enlightenment, the passage of time, emergence, initiation, and journey into and from the center of ourselves and the universe.

Why Teilhard’s Spiral offers a Transdisciplinary Framework and Grammar

Throughout history, geometry has consistently served as a formal medium bridging disparate domains of knowledge (Plato, Euclid, Descartes, Riemann, Einstein Weyl, Teilhard). Teilhard’s spiral functions as a transdisciplinary grammar for understanding relationality, emergence, and directionality, translating insights across disciplines and enabling coherent integration along multiple domains:

— Physics: Structure and causal dynamics correspond to tangential energies, connecting radial with tangential energy, and suggesting a mystery dynamic ant work between quantum and classical physics.

— Biology: Complexity and emergence track the evolution of life systems

— Psychology/Consciousness Studies: Interiorization represents the unfolding of subjective experience, a convergence of energy from outer to inner centration in psychospiritual evolution.

— Theology/Spiritual Inquiry: Teleology and Omega codify purpose and ultimate convergence

Teilhard’s interiorized spiral simultaneously addresses multiple levels of reality, offering a conceptual tool for an evolving transdisciplinary spirit-science synthesis, and cosmogenic evolution/involution choreography arc. Of late, I propose this future looking synthesis include the generative power of consciousness, electromagnetic energy and information fields at work in dual-aspect monads at all scales; in particular the push-pull dynamic of light and gravity waves. Such would incorporate spiral and phi-spiral geometry as transmission mechanisms for said transforming energy emerging from countless zero-point vortices in the space-time field.

This approach addresses the persistent fragmentation of knowledge, offering an integrated framework for a spirit-science cosmology in which matter, life, qualia, quanta, consciousness, and spirit are mutually intelligible, convergent, and expressive of the unfolding Whole, across the full spectrum of reality.

The Author’s personal short-list (auto-cosmology) of spiral dwellers

To further illustrate, below find a partial list of those contributing to my own experience in understanding the unity of all things. There are so many to thank over a lifetime, too many to squeeze into the incomplete list compiled here. Save for Teilhard, the names have no particular significance as to their order, top to bottom, save as they orient to a common center (universal constant) which I refer to along synthesis lines as the Logos, Cosmic Christ, or the God-of-the-Whole. And that list continues to expand and grow as I do. Perhaps the reader will consider compiling a list their own notables, keeping in mind that such favorites likewise were influenced by the inspired work of those who have gone before them.

At minimum, this column may be useful to those challenged to think more inclusively, and/or wish to add to the list of names on the unfolding spiral of their own journey. Perhaps there’s a synthesis reader, not unlike those who specialize in compiling genealogies, or who love to quilt, collect, and catalogue that may be interested in creating a more plenary list that includes universals in spirituality like Teilhard, or others in science such as Einstein or David Bohme. Given the vast pools of existing knowledge that seem to increase exponentially almost daily, there is a limit to what one individual can absorb and process over a lifetime. Withal, the sharing and cross-pollinating of lists can only stimulate the evolutionary process, personal and cosmic.

1. Teilhard de Chardin (contributes rough outline of deeptime evolution and involution side of the double-spiral, Homo Spiralis & Christogenesis): I began my “spiral brigade” with Teilhard because he invoked the spiral motif in his schema, depicting evolution moving not only outward (complexity), but also inward (consciousness). The spiral is his symbol of complexification —> interiorization —> unification. And humanity as Homo spiralis, the human species evolving toward greater freedom, empathy, and spiritual translucence. In Teilhard’s wisdom tradition, Christ is the Omega Presence, the energy drawing the spiral forward from within creation toward personal/spiritual completion and fulfillment.

2. Brian Swimme (the deeptime evolution side of the double-spiral, the universe as story, autocosmology, the human as flame-bearer): Brian Swimme extends cosmology into meaning. The universe is not a random explosion; it is a narrative of creativity. Stars forge heavy elements, allowing life; life evolves consciousness; consciousness evolves compassion. Swimme’s insight: The universe awakens to itself through us. The spiral symbolizes this awakening: matter —> life —> mind —> heart —> compassion —> planetary consciousness.

3. Jennifer Morgan (the deeptime evolution/developmental side of the double-spiral, a foundation for education that fits within the spiraling universe story): With humor, warmth, and scientific rigor in education from ages 8 to 88, Ms. Morgan covers the broad strokes of the cosmic evolution within the cosmogenic spiral, and shows how this unifying foundation provides a trans-disciplinary framework for all subjects, bringing the humanities and sciences together into a unified worldview involving multiple ways of knowing. Morgan’s Universe Story Trilogy is used in classrooms worldwide, and has won numerous prestigious awards and endorsements from global leaders in education and multiple scientific fields.

4-6. Clare Graves, Don Beck, & Chris Cowan (the involutional side of the double-spiral, psychological): Human values evolve in a recurring spiral of adaptation. From survival —> tribe —> power —> order —> rationality —> pluralism —> integrative consciousness. No stage or meme is “bad,” each is epigenetic, a necessary coil of the larger whole. In Teilhard’s wisdom tradition this mirrors Paul’s insight: When I was a child, I thought like a child .  .  . when I became an adult, I put away childish things. Development is natural, healthy, and God-given.

7. Ken Wilber (the involutional side of the double-spiral, integral model of spiral holons): ln Wilber’s spiral model stages include and transcend the previous ones. The spiral is not a ladder but a holarchy, every level enfolds all previous levels, and unfolds each successive stage. Spiritual maturity requires integrating the body, mind, soul, and spirit; the individual and the collective; the interior and the exterior. The Logos (Cosmic Christ) is the meeting ground where all quadrants converge.

8-10. Richard Rohr, Matthew Fox, & Ilia Delio (the involutional side of the double-spiral, the Cosmic Christ Spiral): Rohr: The Universal Christ is the template woven through all creation. Fox: Creation is the first incarnation. Delio: Evolution is the process by which God becomes more deeply united with the world. Together these three affirm a spiraling Christogenesis, Christ not as a one-time event, but as a field of becoming, pulling all things toward unity.

11. Doug King (the deeptime evolution and involution sides of the double-spiral, form and formless, the spiral of faith itself): King reframes Scripture as an evolving spiritual consciousness, from tribal identity —> national identity —> universal identity. And from form/ temple/church religion —> prophetic compassion —> participatory divine union. And from separation —> belonging —> identity in Presence without walls and formless. The New Covenant becomes the shift from exclusive religion to inclusive participation. This is the biblical spiral of awakening.

12. Joe Masterleo (the deep involution cycle of the double spiral, psycho-cosmic mechanics and bridge between outer/inner worlds, the ambient field that inhabits and envelops the spiral from within and without in dual-aspect monads of electromagnetic energy and consciousness = light = Spirit ). Largely unknown in synthesis circles, I include myself on the list in gratitude to all those who have contributed to my personal and professional development. Such has quietly led to a unique synthesis proposal with universal applicability, without fanfare. That synthesis transcends historically siloed disciplines and sectarian religion, to the cosmic luminous atmosphere of Being comprising the entire field in which the spiral and phi-spiral operate as the entire generative energy and information field/medium of creation, transformation, and union. And whose energy permeates every cell, coil, and meme, directing personal and collective evolution like a wave moving within an ocean of consciousness and energy in and around each.

13. Federico Faggin (deep evolution and involution sides of the double-spiral, consciousness as primary, panpsychism, integration of science and spirituality, solution to the “hard problem” of consciousness). Faggin’s work fits within the spiral model via his theory that consciousness is fundamental, an irreducible property of reality (specifically quantum fields), rather than an emergent property of complex matter, such as the brain. This perspective is a radical but necessary departure from mainstream materialistic science (Scientism). Faggin posits that the “inner” world of subjective experience (qualia), free will, and meaning is fundamental and primary, while the “outer” physical world (quanta) is secondary, the informational expression of this deeper reality. The physical world is a “virtual reality” that conscious entities use to know themselves better.

Synthesized Vision of the Whole: (the spiral as one story told many ways): Cosmic evolution is converging toward a unifying Center of centers as evidenced in the contribution of. . . Swimme, by the universe awakening through human consciousness; Morgan, by making the universe story available and creatively riveting in primary and secondary school education, and the child in us all; Graves, Beck, & Cowan, by valuing evolution developing via necessity and adaptation; Wilber, by a holarchic unfoldment of levels; Rohr, Fox, & Delio, by the Cosmic Christ permeating creation; D. King, by seeing Scripture as a developmental narrative toward union in the formless; Faggin, by a radical break with scientific materialism (Scientism), seeing consciousness as fundamental, the brain and material reality as emergent; Masterleo, by seeing the Logos as the ambient physical-metaphysical field of light operating via dual monads in counter-rotating electromagnetic fields. These overlapping fields create and renew the “within” and “without” of the universe continually at all scales.

Closing, a blessing for all spiral beings

May the God-of-the-Whole who spins galaxies, spin our hearts to compassion, breathe new life and understanding into our consciousness, create greater global unity, and illuminate the next turn of our global spiral with grace, wisdom, and joy.

About the Author

Joseph C. Masterleo, LCSW-DCSW, is a clinical social worker in private practice in Syracuse NY, and Rockledge FL. His half-century of service in the mental health care field includes faith-based counseling and psychotherapy, with an emphasis on psycho-spiritual integration. His subspecialty involves developing a novel paradigm for the synthesis of science, religion, and psychology, identifying the energy and geometric patterns that connect the quantum world with space-time, inner and outer worlds. His model explains how spirit and matter can co-exist as two facets of one reality in a unified field, dissolving the walls of partition between previously siloed disciplines. Inspired by the writings of Thomas Merton (ecumenism), Teilhard de Chardin (synthesis), Thomas Berry (ecotheology), Nikola Telsa (electromagnetism), Richard Rohr (Cosmic Christ), Ilia Delio (christogenesis) and others, his objective is to tell a new, future-looking story for the Ecozoic Age, one that forms a connecting bridge between the biblical story of creation, modern science, and ancient cosmologies. His columns on these and related subjects have appeared on websites such as The Center for Christogenesis, Progressive Christianity, and in newsprint via The Goodnews Paper, the Syracuse Post Standard, and the Syracuse Sports Magazine, where he comments on sports as reflecting the best and worst of American character and culture. Further information about Joe and his Spirit-Science model can be found in his book, The Ambient Christ, the Untold Story of God in Science, Scripture, and Spirituality, listed on Amazon Books, Barnes & Noble, and on his website www.joeknowsgod.com