Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human MindAll at once, without warning of any kind, he found himself wrapped around as it were by a flame colored cloud.... Directly afterwards came upon him a sense of exultation, of immense joyousness accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination quite impossible to describe. Into his brain streamed one momentary lightning-flash of the Brahmic Splendor which has ever since lightened his life.... -from "First Words" Wildly arrogant, stunningly bombastic, and undeniably fascinating. This 1901 work-the masterpiece of an eclectic genius whose life encompassed medical science, mystical transcendence, and prospecting for gold-posits a higher form of sentience that only a few humans have ever achieved, among them Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Dante, William Blake, and the author himself, of course. As Bucke shares his metaphysical experience of the "cosmic consciousness" and offers evidence for the few instances in history of its occurrence ("it may as well be frankly stated at once that the view of the present editor is that Francis Bacon wrote the 'Shakespeare' plays and poems"), the reader may well be moved to throw this bizarre and highly intriguing book furiously across the room... if the reader can put it down at all, that is. Canadian mystic and doctor RICHARD MAURICE BUCKE (1837-1902) was a pioneer in the medical treatment of mental illness; his famous friendship with Walt Whitman was the subject of the 1992 movie Beautiful Dreamers. He also wrote Man's Moral Nature (1879) and an 1883 authorized biography of Whitman. |
Contents
1 | |
15 | |
19 | |
PART III | 61 |
62 | 81 |
3 | 87 |
5 | 97 |
6 | 104 |
13 | 215 |
14 | 237 |
ROGER BACON | 269 |
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH | 285 |
16 | 292 |
J | 298 |
R P | 308 |
T S | 317 |
BARTOLOMÉ LAS CASAS | 138 |
JOHN YEPES | 149 |
9 | 177 |
11 | 191 |
HONORÉ DE BALZAC | 198 |
J W | 332 |
J WILLIAM LLOYD | 342 |
PAUL TYNER | 351 |
A J | 361 |
Other editions - View all
Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind Richard Maurice Bucke Limited preview - 2006 |
Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind Richard Maurice Bucke Limited preview - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
appear attained Bacon Balzac become Behmen belongs birth Blake body born Buddhist called Casas Christ color sense compared concepts conscious mind Cosmic Consciousness Cosmic Sense creature Dante death divine earth Edward Carpenter eternal evil evolution existence experience expression eyes fact faculty feeling Francis Bacon Gautama give glory heart immortality individual infinite intellect Jesus kingdom of heaven knew knowledge language Leaves of Grass less living Lord Louis Lambert Max Mueller means mental merely self conscious Mohammed ness never night Nirvâna oncoming pass passages Paul perhaps person Plotinus possession race says Whitman sciousness seems seen Shakespeare simple consciousness Sonnets soul speak spiritual subjective light sweet teaching tell thee things thought thousand tion to-day transhumanized true truth universe unto upādāna vision voice volume Walt Whitman William Stainton Moses words writings written Yepes