Cosmic Consciousness A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind

Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind is a 1901 book by Richard Maurice Bucke, a Canadian psychiatrist. In this book, he explored the concept of Cosmic Consciousness, which he defined as "a higher form of consciousness than that possessed by the ordinary man."


"Cosmic Consciousness is not simply an expansion or extension of the selfconscious mind, with which we are all familiar, but the complete superaddition of a function as distinct from any possessed by the average man as self-consciousness is distinct from any function possessed by the higher animals. I have in the last three years collected twenty-three cases of this so-called Cosmic Consciousness. In each case the onset or incoming of the new faculty is always sudden, instantaneous. Among the unusual feelings the mind experiences is a sudden sense of being immersed in flame or in a brilliant light. This occurs entirely without worrying or outward cause, and may happen at noonday or in the middle of the night, and the person at first feels that he is becoming insane. Along with these feelings comes a sense of immortality; not merely a feeling of certainty that there is a future life—that would be a small matter—but a pronounced consciousness that the life now being lived is eternal, death being seen as a trivial incident which does not affect its continuity. Further, there is annihilation of the sense of sin and an intellectual competency not simply surpassing the old plane, but on an entirely new and higher plane. * * * * The cosmic conscious race will not be the race which exists to-day any more than the present is the same race which existed prior to the evolution of self-consciousness. A new race is being born from us, and this new race will in the near future possess the earth."

Contents:
PART I.
FIRST WORDS
PART II.
Evolution and Devolution.
TO SELF CONSCIOUSNESS
ON THE PLANE OF SELF CONSCIOUSNESS
DEVOLUTION
PART III.
FROM SELF TO COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS
PART IV.
Instances of Cosmic Consciousness.
GAUTAMA THE BUDDHA
JESUS THE CHRIST
PAUL
PLOTINUS
MOHAMMED
DANTE
BARTOLOMÉ LAS CASAS
JOHN YEPES
FRANCIS BACON
JACOB BEHMEN
WILLIAM BLAKE
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
WALT WHITMAN
EDWARD CARPENTER

PART V.
Additional—Some of Them Lesser, Imperfect, and Doubtful Instances.
THE TWILIGHT
MOSES
GIDEON
ISAIAH
LÎ R
SOCRATES
ROGER BACON
BLAISE PASCAL
BENEDICT SPINOZA
JAMES GARDINER
SWEDENBORG
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
CHARLES G. FINNEY
ALEXANDER PUSHKIN
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
ALFRED TENNYSON
J B B
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
J B
C P
H B
R P S
E T
RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHANSA
J H J
T S R
W H W.
RICHARD JEFFERIES
C M C
M C L
J. W. W.
J. WILLIAM LLOYD
HORACE TRAUBEL
PAUL TYNER
C Y E
A J S
PART VI.
Last Words


This book originally published by E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc in 1901 has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting.