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Newsletter Nr. 739
Amsterdam, October 28th, 2018


THE SELF-CREATING UNIVERSE - The Emergence of a New Worldview - JOHN CLARKE

The universe seems to have an irresistible urge to create. From the Big Bang to the tiniest flowering plant, from living cells to the mighty human brain, the natural world is a scene of booming, buzzing innovation, demonstrating at all levels of being an extravagant impulse to fashion and refashion things anew. There is, as Charles Darwin reminds us, a “grandeur” in the life of nature which brings forth “endless forms”. We witness this, not only in the process of evolution to which Darwin devoted his own creative genius, but in the life of the cosmos as a whole. This is not only a “riddle”, but a spectacle “most beautiful and most wonderful”.

In the course of his lifetime Darwin was torn between two ways of making sense of this creative exuberance. In his early days he viewed the world as reflecting divine grandeur, as a great cosmic harmony created by God. Later, and rather reluctantly, he came to see the creative power of nature as something which is simply inherent in nature itself, an extraordinary product of the natural order of things.

Read more:
http://www.integralworld.net/clarke1.html


PROBLEMS WITH WILBER'S PRE-TRANS FALLACY - JOSEPH DILLARD

Like many admirers of the Integral AQAL of Ken Wilber, I have been particularly influenced by his Pre-Trans Fallacy, because of its ability to answer important questions about truth claims. How do we know if channeling or psychism or astrology are or are not transpersonal practices? How can we tell if a mystical experience is transpersonal or not? How can we tell if someone who claims to be transpersonally evolved is indeed so, or simply suffering from delusions of grandiosity? The importance of such questions boils down to issues of trust, deception, useful time and wasted years, to enlightenment and needless suffering. To those who consider such concerns important, the Pre-Trans Fallacy is an extremely important tool for cutting through confusion and assessing claims and personalities with necessary clarity.

Read more:
http://www.integralworld.net/dillard20.html