@jrmattox
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A friend of a friend here in Asheville has previously taught at IONS.
She offered to “ask my contacts at IONS if they know of availability”.
She also shared:
The book upon which it was based is available from variius sources like this; https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Heart-Healing-companion-TBS-series-Poole/77132916/bd
The Heart of Healing, companion to the TBS series by Poole, William & the Institute of Noetic Sciences: F | Ann Wendell, Bookseller
1st Edition – Hardcover – Atlanta Turner C1993. – Dust Jacket Included – vg+/vg+, lite shelf wear, o/w bright & tight book. size approx 9×11″ with 192 pages. Illustrated by glossy color. 1st printing edition. Binding is cream cloth. – The Heart of Healing, companion to the TBS series -
It has only recently seeped into my awareness that writing a scientific paper on PKS 1622-297 was an act of autocosmoloy.
Frankly, when I was working at NASA in the nineteen-nineties, my attention was distracted by a less noble motivation, something often labeled, ‘publish or perish’.
At the time, I was working at NASA Goddard’s Space Flight Center as the Instrument Specialist for the EGRET instrument on the Compton Gama-Ray telescope, my 3rd post-doc position, lamenting the fact that I had not become a new PhD when the Russians launched Sputnik.
I had an idea as the EGRET Instrument Specialist, that turned out to be somewhat original. The EGRET team could produce preliminary maps of gamma-ray intensity within ~40 hours of an observation that could be used to reliably detect bright transient gamma-ray sources. So I wrote a guest investigator proposal to do science on these sources, and proposed a substantial budget, which enabled me to fund myself as a Research Professor at Boston University (for a few years), and gave me Principal-Investigator rights to EGRET data for this flare of PKS 1622-297, the brightest extra-solar gamma-ray source seen by EGRET, and after a follow up mission called FERMI, the 3rd brightest GeV gamma-ray source that humanity has detected to date.
In retrospect, I regret that my effort to pull this proposal together precluded me from being with my Mother, who was then in hospice in New Mexico, dying from cancer. A better life choice would have been to have ditched the proposal and been with my Mother. I still would have been a coauthor on the autocosmoloy of PKS 1622-297 (with someone else as the lead author). And it is possible that my academic career might have gone better, with a reputation of being a team player.
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During my life, I’ve also had interesting ideas, only to I find with some research, were not original.
In the nineteen-nineties, while I was working at NASA Goddard’s space flight Center as the Instrument Specialist for the EGRET instrument on the Compton Gama Ray telescope, I thought of using the extant cable-TV infrastructure for high bandwith Internet service.
This was before our space shuttle launch, so I had some time to go to the fabulous library at Goddard (which is now being shut down under the Trump administration) to check this out.
Quickly learned that, not only was this practical, it was well along in development. Within about 3 years, my family was able to subscribe to this “Cable Modem” service!
I’ve had several similar experiences since. I completely relate to Stephan’s suggestion that this is inspiring in that these were good idea even if I didn’t get there first. Also, I find it an inspiration to continue to explore new ideas that might turn out to be original.
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Autobiography. Perhaps in the near future, autobiography will be recognized as a subgenre of autocosmology characterized by the author writing about himorherself in a way that does not explicitly recognize himorherself as part of the cosmos.
About me. I am a retired experimental astrophysicist
I grew up in Deadwood, SD, and then enrolled at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, intending to major in physics. During my one year there, I was on the varsity wrestling team, and came across Eckankar, which lead me to stop out of college for five years to seriously pursue mysticism.
I eventually got my BS in Physics at the University of Florida, and immediately enrolled in a PhD program in Applied Physics at Stanford University. During my first year there, I worked on Josephson junction devices which have become a potential building block of quantum computers. During that year, I was active in the Nuclear Freeze grassroots campaign, which resulted in some cognitive dissonance as Stanford’s work on Josephson junctions was largely funded by the DoD. After reading in the campus student newspaper about Stanford’s participation in the EGRET Instrument for NASA’s Orbiting Compton Gamma-Ray Telescope, I signed up. My thesis advisor was Nobel Laureate experimental sub-atomic-particle physicist, Robert Hofstadter.
My first postdoc postion was in Germany at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, which collaborated on the EGRET Instrument. My second postdoc position (faculty positions were then scarce) was at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which was the lead partner for the EGRET Instrument. It was my great pleasure to be there during the space shuttle launch of Compton, and the intial operation of EGRET, which turned out to be very productive scientifically – we detected gamma-rays coming from pulsars, quasars, super nova explosions, the Sun, and galactic cosmic rays. My first faculty postion was at Boston University as a research professor (working in gamma-ray astronomy). This position required me to obtain all of my funding through grant writing. After four years I realized that this would probably not be a sustainable situation. My second faculty postion (for 3 years) was at Francis Marion University in South Carolina. My third faculty position (for 17 years) was at Fayetteville State University, a University of North Carolina Campus. My NASA research funding ended after several years there. In addition to teaching introductory astronomy and physics courses, I became the director of the Campus Planetarium and Observatory. I showed Brian’s Journey of the Universe video (projected on the Planetarium dome with a high quality sound system) to nearly every student who took my introductory astronomy class for a decade!
I now live on a 3 acre farm (The Big Cove Sanctuary) in Candler, NC, a 20 minute drive west of Asheville in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
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I’d like to suggest that another definition of autocosmology is, the cosmos writing about itself!
Here is an interesting example of autocosmology that I was involved in. In 1997, I was the lead author on a paper in the Astrophysical Journal (1997ApJ…476..692M) about a quasar in the blazar class named PKS 1622-297. We observed its gamma-ray flux (E>100 MeV) to increase by a factor of at least 3.6 in less than 7.1 hr (with 99% confidence). More from the abstract: Without beaming, the rapid flux change and large isotropic luminosity are inconsistent with the Elliot-Shapiro condition (assuming that gas accretion is the immediate source of power for the γ-rays). This inconsistency suggests that the γ-ray emission is beamed. A minimum Doppler factor of 8.1 is implied by the observed lack of pair-production opacity (assuming X-rays are emitted cospatially with the γ-rays).
Any questions?
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David,
Thank you for this great contribution!
I also feel a yearning to extend my lifespan. During my annual medicare-sponsored checkup, two weeks ago I told my general practitioner that I hope to live to be 140 (I’m 71 now). He laughed and responded that this puts a lot of responsibility on his care! He is a great fit for me. He’s from South Africa. He have both paddled the Grand Canyon in kayaks (with our sons). I will submit to almost any diagnostic or screening test he recommends. He is happy to let me make my own informed choices. But I’m also putting directives into place for a graceful early exit should that be may fate: e.g., if I have dementia and don’t want to eat, don’t force feed me.
I notice that I’m very attached to being imbedded in a linear flow of time. Thank you so much for pointing out that science doesn’t necessarily support its reality! Here is an accessible summary of the contemporary dilema of time as understood by physicists.
John
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During our initial zoom meeting. we discussed environmentalism. David (who serves on the Pugwash Council – an international group of scientists concerned about nuclear war, founded by Bertrand Russel and Albert Einstein) lamented the now diminished effort of scientists to prevent nuclear war.
Sarbmeet suggested that rationale and motivation for environmental activism are not contingent upon adherence to Cosmogenesis.
John awoke the morning after this discussion with the thought that perhaps Cosmogenesis brings RADIANCE to environmental activism, that we are thus acting to further the interests of the Cosmos, Nature, God, Ourselves!
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I wrote the following script to present at an event in Asheville on 3/14/26 called Death on Stage. This was not selected for inclusion in the program…
Einstein wrote in 1931 about death: …an individual who should survive his physical death is – beyond my comprehension… Such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life…
I’ve looked at the near-death, shared-death, and afterlife literature, and I find a lot of interesting things, but I don’t find proof that Einstein was wrong about death. But, as with any scientific hypothesis, a failure to disprove does not provide proof.
Afterall, Einstein is known for his mistakes. After Edmund Hubble discovered the expansion of the Universe in 1929, Einstein indicated that the inclusion of a cosmological constant in his 1917 formulation of general relativity was his “biggest blunder”. But that retraction also turned out to be a bit of a blunder. In 1998, astronomers discovered that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, as it would if there were a cosmological constant!
Anyway, I want to work on disproving Einstein’s death hypothesis. I mean, I do have his hair, and I’ve also worked in astrophysics.
Here is my plan. I’m thinking that if there is survival of the individual beyond death, then there should be the possibility of a definitive demonstration of the dead person’s agency. Toward this end, I’ve begun a research program. I’m reaching out telepathically to four relatives I was close to during their lives, and who were scientifically trained: my Father, my Mother, my Brother, and my favorite Uncle. I’m asking them to collaborate toward this objective. I expect they might know best how to proceed, so I’m just paying attention, waiting for them to get in touch. So far, NOTHING.
But I’m not giving up, yet. I’ll keep paying attention. And, also, I want to try an additional strategy. I’m hoping to develop a substantial pool of close friends with whom extensive discussions will be held while we are both alive about how agency after death might be demonstrated. We might also agree that we will step into this experiment through the experience of a shared death (either theirs of mine). If you’d like to participate, let me know!
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During our course Zoom meeting on Radiance (Session 9 on 3/10/26), John asked Brian about death. This 4 minute dialogue occurs in the recording from 1:32:38 – 1:36:55. Here is John’s transcript.
BrianThomasSwimme: Welcome. John!
John Mattox: So I’ve been thinking about what happens after we die. Does what we’ve created live on through eternity as part of the universe?
Or, as many of my friends like to believe, do we persist as a personality? I’ve looked at AI’s summary of what’s on the internet, and I see you’ve not taken a position on this. I’m wondering if you wish to?
BrianThomasSwimme: Okay, yah, I will, here we go.
I think of death as mysterious. It’s just as mysterious to me as our birth. And I would also say, the birth of the universe, I mean, where’d it come from? I mean, it’s mysterious. And where is it going to end up? I don’t know, but here’s my thinking. I think that, we cannot reason our way into an understanding of death. We can’t. I mean, that’s what I believe. It’s something that’s beyond rationality.
But here’s my one insight, not mine alone, I don’t mean it that way, but personally this is what I think. The Universe is grounded in love. And so, what kind of love is it? It’s cosmic love. And we have this awesome opportunity of consciously participating in that love, even to the point of consciously transforming ourselves into it. We have that power, it’s amazing to think about it. Wow, we can become the human form of this deep cosmological reality. But what’s interesting is that we (or at least I) can’t do that with absolute certainty that what I’ve said is true. I don’t know.
But it’s somehow or another, and here it is, last line. I think that if a person chooses to love, and to become love. Then they do that even without knowing, even without knowing. So there’s something especially attractive about a love that is going forward, even in spite of inevitable doubts. It’s something, like, the most genuine form of love requires that we not know in a rational way. So there you have it. Maybe now you know why it’s not on the internet. But that’s what I believe.
John Mattox: Thank you, that’s a lot to digest. I appreciate you being explicit.
BrianThomasSwimme: You’re welcome, John.
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It seems that the 11 powers of the Universe that Brian has enumerated have an compelling analogy to something that is of human concern.
There are many additional behaviors in nature without such analogy, e.g., sublimation, the transformation of a solid material directly into its vapor form.
Are there others that do have a compelling human analogy? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to specify 12?
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This group was founded my participants in the 2026 Deep Time Course, Activating Cosmogenetic Experience to explore cosmogenesis from the perspective of practicing or retired scientists.
Founding participants included: John Mattox, Stephan Martin, David Ellwood, Sarbmeet Kanwal, and Francie White. Although it is not a requirement to participate in this group, these folks all have PhDs.
It is anticipated that this discussion will be open to any Deep Time participant, however mathematics and scientific terminology will be used freely in our discussion.
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Googling, “scientific status of Brian Swimme’s 11 powers of the universe”. Google AI offered this summary: This is categorized as an interdisciplinary synthesis of cosmology, philosophy, and spirituality rather than a set of peer-reviewed scientific laws. AI also summarizes critical reception as follows: Positive: Proponents view it as a “brave, paradigm-shifting” approach that provides a life-affirming vision of human potential and ecological responsibility. Skeptical: Within traditional scientific circles, these ideas are often viewed as pantheistic or New Age philosophy. The concept that the universe has an inherent “aim” or “telos” (such as beauty) is considered an intuitive or spiritual claim that cannot be empirically proven.
John commented in the kick-off Zoom we held for this group that this AI summery seems consistent with what he found by examining web content from a standard google search. Sarbmeet conquered with its validity.
John awoke on 3/3/26, the morning after kick-off Zoom, with the realization that Cosmogenesis is perhaps an intuitive practice, but it is grounded in established scientific findings, and should perhaps be considered to be a scientific hypothesis, potentially subject to scientific experimentation.
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Brian first introduced the Eleven Powers of the Universe in an 11-part video lecture series titled The Powers of the Universe, which was released on DVD on September 23, 2004.
1. Centration
Every being arises as a centered reality with its own integrity, coherence, and inward orientation. From particles to planets to persons, each entity gathers the energies of the universe into a distinctive pattern of existence.Centration means the universe does not evolve as a vague mass, but through countless centers of agency and experience. Each center is a moment where the cosmos becomes this particular being, responding to the whole from a unique interior location.
2. Allurement
The universe advances through attraction rather than coercion. Each being is drawn forward by an invitation toward richer relationship, greater complexity, and deeper participation in the whole.Allurement is the eros of the cosmos—the subtle pull toward beauty, novelty, and fulfillment. In human experience, it appears as wonder, curiosity, desire, love, and the sense of being called toward meaning not yet realized.
3. Emergence
At critical thresholds, the universe brings forth realities that are genuinely new. Life emerges from chemistry, consciousness from neural complexity, culture from communal intelligence.Emergence reveals that the universe is inherently creative. It is not merely rearranging existing components but continually inventing new modes of being that transform the direction and depth of cosmic evolution.
4. Homeostasis
Living systems maintain themselves through dynamic balance. Rather than remaining static, they continuously adjust to changing conditions in order to preserve coherence and viability.Homeostasis demonstrates the universe’s capacity for self-regulation. Whether in cells, ecosystems, or planetary systems, stability is achieved through responsiveness, flexibility, and relational intelligence.
5. Cataclysm
Periods of intense disruption—supernovae, asteroid impacts, mass extinctions—are integral to cosmic creativity. These events dismantle established forms and release energies for new evolutionary possibilities.Cataclysm shows that destruction is not outside the universe’s creativity but woven into it. The universe advances not only through continuity, but also through rupture, shock, and radical reconfiguration.
6. Synergy
When beings come into relationship, they generate capacities greater than the sum of their parts. New possibilities arise through cooperation, resonance, and mutual amplification.Synergy reveals the universe’s relational genius. Creativity accelerates through collaboration, showing that complexity and power emerge most fully when diverse entities work together in patterned harmony.
7. Transmutation
Throughout cosmic history, earlier forms are transformed into radically new realities. Stars transmute hydrogen into heavier elements; life transforms minerals into living tissue; culture transforms biology into meaning.Transmutation highlights the universe’s alchemical depth. Nothing is wasted—every phase of existence becomes the material for future creativity, reshaped into more complex and expressive forms.
8. Cerebralization
Over time, the universe develops increasing capacity for awareness, sensitivity, and reflective consciousness. Nervous systems, brains, and symbolic thought emerge as expressions of this deepening interiority.Cerebralization culminates—so far—in human consciousness, where the universe begins to reflect explicitly on its own origins, trajectory, and meaning. Through thinking beings, the cosmos becomes self-aware.
9. Interrelatedness
Nothing exists independently. Every being is shaped by, sustained through, and expressive of relationships extending across space and time.Interrelatedness affirms that identity is relational at its core. To exist is to participate in a vast web of mutual influence, where each action reverberates throughout the whole.
10. Radiance
Each being expresses the creativity of the universe in a distinctive way. Existence itself is a form of luminosity—the cosmos shining through its countless expressions.Radiance names the beauty and dignity inherent in all that exists. From galaxies to microorganisms to human creativity, every being reveals something unique about the universe’s unfolding splendor.
11. Seamlessness
Despite immense diversity and complexity, the universe unfolds as a single, continuous process. There are no absolute breaks between matter and life, life and mind, humanity and Earth.Seamlessness reveals the deep unity of existence. The universe is one ongoing story—differentiated yet coherent—within which every being belongs as an integral expression of the whole.
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